fci 




Ru^or Williams' Statue. 

See ^«e .»1 



FOOT-PRINTS 

OF 

ROGER WILLIAMS 



SKETCHES OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN EARLY NEW 

ENGLAND HISTORY, WITH WHICH HE 

WAS CONNECTED. 



By Rev. Z. A. MUDGE, 

AUTHOR (U •AVITCII IIILL," " A'lEWS FROM PLYMOUTH ROCK," "CHRISTIAN 
STATESMAN," ETC. 



FIVE ILLUSTRATION 



New York : 
CARLTON & LANAHAK 

SAN FRANCISCO: E. THOMAS. 
CINCINNATI: HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. 

8 U N D A Y-S CHOOL DEPARTMENT. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 

CARLTON & LANAHAN, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, 



PREFACE. 



A:ME:M0IR of Roger Williams by Prof. 
J. D. Knowles was published in 1834- 
It contains all the material which was to be 
found at that time, and is a repository of knowl- 
edge to which all future writers on the subject 
must be greatly indebted. In 1S46 Prof. Will- 
iam Gammel sent forth a Life of Rosrer Will- 
iams, and in 1853 Dr. Romeo Elton followed 
with another, both of which are interesting por- 
traitures of his character. But none of these 
are professedly AiVTitten for young people, for 
whom especially this volume is prepared. 

Since the last date Samuel Greene Arnold 
has given to the public A History of Rhode 
Island and Pro\idence Plantations. The work 
contains new facts concerning Williams, corrects 
some earlier investigations, and gives lucid 
statements of contemporaneous history with 
which he was connected. 



6 Preface. 

Still later than this standard work has been 
the publication, by the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, of several letters written by Williams, 
which illustrate important periods of his life. 

We have laid the above works under careful 
contribution in preparing our Foot-prints ; be- 
sides these we are indebted for our sketches to 
Dr. Palfrey's Histor\- of New England, and to 
Drake's Biography and Historv* of the Xorth 
American Indians. We have also introduced 
the rendering by the poets of a few of the facts 
of our narrative. 

We desire that our Foot-prints may inspire in 
the young a wish for a further acquaintance with 
the thrilling events and noble characters of 
early American history, and that histor}' may 
have for them a greater charm than fiction. 

Our illustrations have never before been 
published in this connection, and will be found 
valuable. 



CONTEXTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE FATHER-LAND. 

Williams a Welshman — Disagreement about the time and 
place of his birth — Educated at the Charter House, and 
Pembroke College, Cambridge University — Williams a Pen- 
sioner — Obtains an undergraduate honor — An incident of his 
early life — Sir Edward Coke his patron — Williams at twenty- 
eight years of age — Early conversion — Studies law — Becomes 
a clerg^Tnan — The condition of England in reference to 
religion — Reign of Queen Elizabeth — James I. — Charles I. — 
Many ministers driven out of England — Williams prepares to 
leav^ the countrj- Page 15 

CHAPTER 11. 

ACROSS THE SEA. 

The New World — The Ph-mouth colony — The Ph-mouth 
Company of England — The Massachusetts Bay Company — 
Settlement at Salem — At Boston — The object of the settlers 
— Sickness and death — The arrival of Williams in the ship 
Lyon — A Fast turned to a Thanksgiving 2^ 

CHAPTER in. 

GETTING ACQUAINTED. 

Boston as it was — An early historian's picture of its famine 
— The first white man of Boston — Sweet springs — First 
Church organization — Church covenant — First house of wor- 
ship — Williams elected teacher — His scruples — Goes to Salem 



8 Contents. 

— State of the settlement and Church there — Ordination — ■ 
No dissent allowed — Boston objects to Williams' settlement 
in Salem — He .settles — Soon leaves for Plymouth. . . Page 29 

CHAPTER IV. 

WILLIAMS AT PLYMOUTH. 

Situation of the Pilgrims — Their chief men — Their social 
and religious interviews — The Pilgrim history — Sickness — 
Drought — Thanksgiving Day — Trade — Indian alarms and 
fights — Pilgrim business debts — Williams elected teacher — 
Other ministers — How Williams employed his time while at 
Plymouth — Visits the Indians — Studies their lanj^uage — Their 
filthy homes — Visit of Governor Winthrop to Plymouth — 
The Sabbath service — Birth of Williams' first child — Return 
to Salem 41 

CHAPTER V. 

AMONG OLD FRIENDS. 

Mr. Skelton — Parsonages — Place of worship — The services 
of God's house — Manner of receiving persons into the Church 
— The women relate their experience in the public assembly — 
The first house of worship 54 

CHAPTER VI. 

IN PERILS A.MONG BRETHREN. 

Ministers' meetings — Women and vails — Williams writes 
his views on various matters — Boston objects to them — Will- 
iams conciliates his objectors — Skelton's death — Williams 
elected to his place — The rulers object — He is summoned to 
Court — More complaints — Required to discuss his opinions — 
Cutting the cross from the flag — Endicott under censure — A 
mean act of the Court 60 

CHAPTER VII. 

MORE PERILS. 

Williams again summoned — The charges — Salem Church 
threatened — The Court in earnest — Williams sentenced to 



Contents. g 

banishment — His Church submit to the Court — His health 
fails — Desperate feelings — The Church paid by the Court for 
its submission — The town resent the treatment Williams re- 
ceives — Time of banishment extended — Williams to be sent 
to England — Flies into the wilderness Page 6g 

CHAPTER VHI. 

CAST OUT. 

Williams' second child — Leaves his family — His course — 
His conflicts in the wilderness — The poet's description — The 
wigwam of Massasoit — Settles at Seekonk — Friendly let- 
ter from Plymouth — Breaks up again — Whatcheer — Provi- 
dence 75 

CHAPTER IX. 

A STATE PLANTED. 

Purchase of land from the Indians — Indian presents — The 
desire of Williams to benefit the Indians — Reunion of his 
family — Poverty — Civil compact — Liberality — Religious lib- 
erty — Simple form of government — Planting — Laying out 
home lots or *' plantations " — Purchase of small islands. . 85 

CHAPTER X. 

FRIENDLY GREETINGS TO MASSACHUSETTS. 

The case of Joshua Verin — Winthrop's version — Williams' 
statement — Congratulations to Winthrop — A pleasant post- 
script — Touching evidence of poverty — Winthrop's questions 
and Williams' answers 95 

CHAPTER XL 

INDIAN NEIGHBORS. 

The Massachusetts — Pokanokets — Wampanoags — Narra- 
gansetts — Their territory and rule — Their curious history — 
Canonicus — The Indian Yankees — Character of the Indians — 
Indian language — A curious example of its flexibility. . . . 106 



10 Contents. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE WAR-CLOUD. 

The Pequots — Accused of murder, and are fined — Oldham 
and his company killed — Pequots and Narragansetts accused 
— Williams defends the Narragansetts — Endicott sent against 
the Pequots — Williams prevents a league between the Pe- 
quots and Narragansetts — The latter renew at Boston their 
treaty with the colonists — A significant compliment to 
Williams Page 1 13 

CHAPTER XHI. 

THE W A R - T E M P E S T . 

Williams again at the camp of Canonicus — The old Chief 
is full of jealousy — Williams '^sweetens his spirit '' — The Nar- 
ragansetts instruct the Whites how to fight the Pequots — 
Canonicus would like a present — The Pequots on the war-path 
— The mighty army of Massachusetts — General Stoughton's 
command at Providence — Williams entertains the officers — 
Connecticut in the field — Captains Mason and Underhill — 
Night attack on a Pequot fort — Destruction of the Pequot 
tribe 119 

CHAPTER XIV. 

AFTER THE STORM. 

Sufferings of the English soldiers — Timely arrival of vessels 
— Stoughton pursues the foe — Last fight — Death of Sassacus 
— Thanksgiving by the colonists — The services of Williams 
acknowledged — Runaway slaves — Cases of " Rendition " — 
Spicy debate upon it — Miantonomo states a case 129 

CHAPTER XV. 

A BREEZE FROM ANOTHER QUARTER. 

AVilliams' position increasingly responsible — Dissension in 
Massachusetts— New-comers — Designs of the Lord Bishops — 



Contents. 1 1 

Ann Hutchinson — Her debates and deeds of charity — Her 
woman's meeting- — Criticism — Governor Vane — The parties 
to the contention — It waxes warm — The General Court inter- 
feres — Rulers are changed — An assembly of the Churches at 
Cambridge — The Hutchinson party go down — Banishments — 
The cabin of Roger Williams Page 141 

CHAPTER XVI. 

FRIENDLY AID GIVEN. 

Aquedneck — Williams negotiates for the new comers with 
the Indian Chiefs — Religious liberty — Portsmouth — Newport 
— The Hutchinson family — Contentions — Williams to Win- 
throp — Miantonomo's expedition to Hartford — Williams ac- 
companies him — Uncas and Miantonomo — Williams writes 
again to Winthrop — Murderers hung — Annoying refugees — 
Non-intercourse 153 

CHAPTER XVII. 

IMPORTANT CHANGES. 

Early religious meetings at Providence — Preaches — First 
movement in the formation of a Church — Immersions — Will; 
iams' peculiar views of the Christian Church — Leaves her 
communion — Letter to Winthrop — Excommunications — Will- 
iams' Christian spirit 164 

CHAPTER XVIIL 

SOME SAD THINGS. 

Altercations — The Pawtuxet question — Samuel Gorton — 
Massachusetts takes Gorton in hand — Colonial Confederation 
— Rhode Island out in the cold — The Narragansett Bay towns 
move for a charter — They send Williams to England — He 
embarks at Manhattoes — His fourth child — Uncas stirs up an 
Indian war — Miantonomo fights, is defeated and taken pris- 
oner — Uncas refers his case to the English — He is given over 
by them to be killed — The cruel deed condemned 171 



12 Contents. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

MUCH PLEASANTER MATTERS. 

Williams on the voyage to England — His Key to the Indian 
Languages — Condition of England on his arrival — Sir Henry 
Vane — Williams obtains a charter for his colony — The Bloody 
Tenet controversy — An interesting incident — Williams returns 
by way of Boston — A joyful welcome Page iSo 

CHAPTER XX. 

AN OUT-LOOK FROM A TRADING-HOUSE. 

Abuse of religious liberty — The Charter Government started 
— Williams Assistant Governor — He removes to a trading- 
house — A liquor agency — Williams to John Winthrop, of 
Connecticut — About farming — News from England — Indian 
women — Peace-making — "Little Rhody " — Williams' canoe 
upset 191 

CHAPTER XXI. 

IN LONDON, WATCHING AND WAITING. 

Coddington's projects ; he goes to England — He is appointed 
ruler of Aquedneck — The islanders rebel, and send John 
Clarke to England — Warwick and Providence send Williams 
to England ; he sells his trading-house, and sails from Boston 
— His opponents in England — His friends, Vane, Peters, 
Cromwell, and Milton — Williams teaches Hebrew, Greek, 
Latin, French, and Dutch — His correspondence with a 
daughter of Sir Edward Coke — Coddington deposed — Will- 
iams returns home 203 

CHAPTER XXH. 

WILLIAMS COLONIAL PRESIDENT. 

Sir Henry Vane's letter to Rhode Island — Rhode Island 
again united, and Williams President — Letter to Massachu- 
setts — Disorganizers —Williams states his views of religious 



Contents. 13 

liberty — William Harris controversy — Another letter to Mas- 
sachusetts; it has a significant postscript — More good deeds — 
Williams goes to Boston Page 215 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

A TERRIBLE COLLISION. 

The Quaker troubles — The dreadful scare — The Quakers 
dealt with, and they glory in tribulation — Extreme measures 
— Popular opposition to the rulers — The poet's rendering of 
the proceedings — The martyr's crown sought — The doings of 
the Commissioners of the United Colonies ; they urge Rhode 
Island to prosecute the Quakers — She stands firm for religious 
liberty — Is threatened, and appeals to the Home Government 
— Charles II. ; he stops the persecution of the Quakers — 
They subside into good citizens 224 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

VARIOUS MATTERS. 

Old annoyances — " Who is Roger Williams ? " — " Loving 
lines" acknowledged — "Streams of blood" — Hugh Peter's 
death — Sir Hem-y Vane executed — The new charter of 1663 
— The new ship of State ; her good condition and great suc- 
cess — Accusations against the new ship repelled — Williams' 
controversy with the Quakers — Both Williams and his enemies 
" write a book " 233 

CHAPTER XXV. 

THE WAR-PATH. 

Indian war ; points of interest to Williams — Metacomet, or 
" King Philip," and Canonchet — Death of Wamsutta — En- 
glish jealousies of Philip — He is disarmed — Hanging, by 
Plymouth, of Philip's subjects — The war prematurely begun 
— Williams is made Captain — The Indians carry fire and 
bloodshed through the colonies — Philip believed to be the 
master-mind — Indians defeated but not beaten — Canonchet's 
movements; his death — Philip driven to a swamp, fights 



14 Contents. 

desperately, and falls — The great price of the English victory 
•^An incident of Roger Willianis — The Indian prisoners 
•'apprenticed " Page 243 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE SUNSET OF LIFE. 

Serions accusations repelled — Williams' Christian temper — 
Letter to Williams by John Cotton, of Plymouth, and Will- 
iams' answer — A good word for the son of an old friend — 
Williams seeks to publish his sermons — Evidence of poverty 
— Williams' domestic relations — Williams' death — His rising 
fame 25S 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

MEMENTOES. 

Salem — The site of the tirst church — The old Roger Will- 
iams Church — Roger Williams' house — A trip to Providence 
— Courtesies — The Roger Williams spring ; site of his house ; 
his grave, and incidents of disinterring his ashes — The Roger 
Williams' watch and pocket compass — Whatcheer — Proposed 
Roger Williams monument 269 



illustrations. 



Roger Williams' Statue 2 

Roger Williams' Church 5S 

Landing of Roger Williams S2 

Intended Monument to Roger Williams at Prov- 
idence 26S 

Roger Williams' House 273 



FOOT-PRIXTS 

OF 

ROGER WILLIAMS 



CHAPTER L 

THE F A T H E R - L A X D, 

' I ^HERE is an agreement, among critical 
-*- inquirers, that Roger Williams was a 
Welshman. But the place and time of his birth 
have been in perplexing dispute. His first 
American biographer, a careful inquirer, settled 
upon 1599 ^s ^he year. He was followed at a 
later time by a learned investigator, who found 
the name of Roger Williams, as he supposed, 
in the records of Oxford University. It was 
written, as was the custom, in Latin, and read 
" Rodericus Williams." The year of his birth 
was given as 1606, and the place Conwyl Cayo, 
South Wales. We were right glad of this dis- 
covery, and were about to start, by the aid of 



1 6 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

some rare English volumes describing minutely 
the parishes of South Wales, to look up the 
foot-prints there of Roger Williams for the 
entertainment of our readers. But we felt, 
through a still later volume by a cautious and 
painstaking antiquary, a hand laid upon our 
shoulder. Look here, it was said ; you had 
better not go to Cayo to look up localities con- 
nected with the early life of Roger Williams. 
" Rodericus " should not be rendered Roger, 
but Roderick, and so the record refers to quite 
another person. We felt a little mortified that 
we did not see the error for ourselves. This 
later author finds in the records of Pembroke 
College, Cambridge University, " Rogerus Will- 
iams," under a date which throws the time of 
his birth back to the year fixed upon by early 
writers, that of 1599. This, taken in connec- 
tion with facts gathered from other sources, 
seems to settle the question of his age and place 
of classical training. His name was enrolled 
on the "admission book" of the University in 
1623, and he took his degree of Bachelor of 
Arts in 1627. There is in connection with 
these dates his autograph signature, which, 
compared with his known signatures in this and 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. \j 

the old country, shows that the records refer to 
^?/r -Roger WiUiams. He prepared for college 
at Sutton's Hospital, now the Charter House, 
where, about a hundred years later, John Wes- 
ley received his early training. 

Williams was graded in the University as a 
Pensioner. All who boarded at the college 
were so classed. The sons of the noble and 
wealthy made a higher class, called Fellow Com- 
moners. The poor students were arranged by 
themselves, and were called Sizars. 

Roger Williams must have ranked well as a 
scholar in college, but very likely he was not 
popular among the students. He was too inde- 
pendent and out-spoken for general popularity, 
but could not have failed to make warm friends. 
He secured, as the records show, one of the un- 
der-graduate honors. 

Though we do not know the place of his birth 
nor the names of his parents, we have, through 
some letters recently found, a pleasing incident 
of his early life, which largely determined the 
character and position of his whole future 
course. It also gives us a key to the spirit of 
his boyhood. At quite an early age he became 
accustomed to take notes of the sermons to 



1 8 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

which he hstened. He also went to the court- 
rooms and took notes of the speeches. He was 
once taking notes in the Star Chamber, a fa- 
mous criminal court of that day. An eminent 
lawyer, Sir Edward Coke — Lord Coke — noticed 
the boy thus employed, and, no doubt, was im- 
pressed with his promising appearance, for he 
examined his notes. The incident led to an 
acquaintance, and the acquaintance to the pat- 
ronage of his lordship, who gave him his clas- 
sical education. 

Thus we find Roger Williams in 1627, at 
twenty-eight years of age, with college culture, 
launching into active life. His education was 
of course valuable at this important period, but 
he had that with it which was of priceless 
worth ; he possessed an established religious 
character. He says of himself: "From my 
childhood the Father of lights and mercies 
touched my soul with a love to himself, to his 
only begotten the true Lord Jesus, and to his 
Holy Scriptures." 

On leaving college he studied law for a while, 
probably through the prompting of Lord Coke, 
his patron. But the law was not his calling, so 
he soon turned to the ministry, and was ordained 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 19 

in the Episcopal Church. It is thought that he 
had for a short period a pastoral charge. Such 
was the state of England at this time that a 
man like Williams would not be allowed to re- 
main long over a parish. His spirit was too 
independent. The opposing influence to such 
men was creating a commotion in the nation 
which was shaking it to its foundation. It was 
forming men's characters and shaping their 
destinies. It drove Williams to the New World, 
and was the spring of much of his future 
thought and action. But for this opposition he 
might have lived in an obscure parish, and died 
unknown to history. To fully appreciate, then, 
our story we must glance at the cause of this 
state of things. 

During Williams' childhood Queen Elizabeth 
reigned in England, and had done so for many 
years. Her father, Henry VIII. , had declared 
his independence of the Pope, but became 
a pope in spirit himself. Her sister Mary, a 
bigoted Roman Catholic, had during her short 
reign tortured and burned thousands of her 
Protestant subjects. Elizabeth was a Protest- 
ant by profession, and a tyrant in the exercise 
of her royal authority. Soon after her ascen- 



20 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

sion to the throne she was declared the supreme 
.head of the Church in her dominions. A law 
was made about the same time, requiring uni- 
formity not only of belief, but of the manner of 
worship. A court was formed, called the Court 
of High Commission, whose duty it was to see 
that all the Queen's subjects submitted to her 
supremacy in religion, and to uniformity in 
worship. Of course no people of spirit, like 
Englishmen, would submit quietly to such rulers 
as Henry VHL, and his daughters Mary and 
Elizabeth. A class of men grew up in these 
reigns called by their enemies Puritans, in de- 
rision of their efforts to secure a purer religious 
faith and practice. But it was not a bad name. 
They of course increased in numbers and 
strength the more they were persecuted. The 
following incident will show how the Puritan 
ministers were treated by the High Commission 
Court — the Protestant Inquisition. Its officer 
cited, at one time, the London clergy before 
him. He set before them a minister of his own 
sort, dressed in a square cap, a priest-like schol- 
ar's gown, and a tippet. They were told they 
must dress like this man, and wear a linen sur- 
plice in the pulpit. " Now," said the officer to 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 21 

them, " ye that will submit to this order of ap- 
parel, write volo ; ye that will not submit, write 
nolo. Be brief, make no words ! " Those who 
did not submit were turned out of their parishes, 
and often left with their families in great desti- 
tution. This course of oppression left only 
two thousand ministers to serve ten thousand 
churches. 

Such was the state of things in Williams' 
childhood. From that time, 1603, until his 
second year in college, 1625, James I. reigned. 
The state of the nation grew worse and worse. 
The King's understanding was very weak, but 
he thought it wonderfully strong ; he was igno- 
rant, but thought himself learned ; he was 
wicked in heart and life, but by persecuting 
those who did not believe as he did he per- 
suaded himself that he was very pious. One 
of his strong passions was a love of flattery, 
and, of course, as he had royal favors to bestow, 
his courtiers gave him all of it he wanted. 
They called him the British Solomon. The 
Duke of Sully said more truthfully : " King 
James is the wisest fool in Europe." Bishop 
Burnet added, " He is the scorn of the age ! " 

Think of Englishmen being quiet under such 



22 Foot-p7'ints of Roger Williams. 

a ruler, with all the laws of '' supremacy " and 
"conformity" enforced! They became about 
as much so as autumn leaves in a whirlwind. 

There w^as one good thing done in the reign 
of James. The Bible was given to the world 
in the translation in which we now read it. 
God had the King in hand when this was done, 
making his stupidity and wickedness to praise 
him. Men began more than ever to read the 
pure word, and so more and more hated the 
rulers and laws which restrained their con- 
sciences. 

Charles I. began to reign in 1625. He was a 
wiser man than his foolish father, but not a wise 
ruler. He was playing the despot with his peo- 
ple, when, in the latter part of 1630, Williams 
was preparing to leave the country. His native 
air was tainted by this spirit of oppression, and 
the stormy atmosphere of New England would 
be to him as the breath of Eden if it but sus- 
tained the spirit of civil and religious liberty. 
We shall see how well his hopes in this respect 
were realized. 



Foot-priiits of Roger Williams. 23 



CHAPTER 11. 

ACROSS THE SEA. 

TT ^E have seen the burdens which rested 
' ^ upon the free spirit of Roger Williams 
in the Father-land. What was there, as he 
looked across the sea to the New World, to in- 
spire his hope of a land more free, and a home 
more quiet ? Let us look at it for a moment 
through his eyes. 

The older settlements south of New England 
did not encourage his coming to their territory. 
They were too much in sympathy with the 
King and the Church party. 

He would look, therefore, farther north. He 
must have known well the history of that de- 
voted band of Christians which left England 
when he was only seven years of age. Their 
tarrying in Holland fourteen years, and their 
subsequent perilous voyage to America ten 
years before this, must have been subjects of 
study with him in his early manhood. Theirs 
was an experience which suited his turn of mind. 



24 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

Their struggles at Plymouth, fighting with cold, 
poverty, sickness, and savage foes, all for a 
purer worship, was perhaps the inspiration of 
his present purpose to cross the sea. 

But just now a company of men were making 
a settlement not far from the Plymouth Pilgrims, 
which promised a wider field of labor for a 
Christian minister. So to them the attention 
of Williams was attracted. It was the Massa- 
chusetts colony. King. James had granted a 
magnificent right in the New World to the Ply- 
mouth Company, made up of rich merchants 
and powerful noblemen. By this they were 
made owners of the country between the for- 
tieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitudes, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Let the 
reader take the map and see if this does not 
look like a grand landed estate. It included a 
large part of what is now the dominion of Can- 
ada, all of New England and New York, large 
portions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, 
Indiana, and Illinois, all of the great States of 
Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and 
the vast area of the States and Territories west 
of these, across the Rocky Mountains to the 
Pacific Ocean. But great possessions are not 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 25 

always great riches. This huge farm proved to 
be an unmanageable elephant to its owners, and 
they returned to the King soon after their title- 
deed with a " Thank you, sir ■ we don't care for 
it any longer." 

Of this Company some wealthy men, called 
the Massachusetts Bay Company, obtained a 
patent, March 14, 1628, to so much of their ter- 
ritory as lay between lines drawn from the 
Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, starting three 
miles north of the Merrimac river, and three 
miles south of the Charles river. The new 
Company sent over the same year a party under 
John Endicott, who began a settlement at Sa- 
lem. They found a few adventurers there, the 
most of whom left at their coming. The next 
year, 1629, the Rev. Francis Higginson headed 
a company of two hundred persons, who sought 
homes at Salem and Charlestown. In 1630 an 
expedition of eight hundred persons came over, 
with John Winthrop as Governor. During the 
year nearly as many more followed, all settling 
in and about Boston and Charlestown. Endi- 
cott gracefully yielded his official position to 
Winthrop, and the career of the Massachusetts 
colony was fully begun. The King had granted 



26 Foot-prints of Rogcj' Williams. 

them, by charter, full power to make all neces- 
sary laws '' not repugnant to England." They 
were to give his Majesty one fifth of all the gold 
and silver ores which they found in the country. 
Neither party became rich on these. 

These men had largely in view mercantile 
advantages. But many of them, including 
most of the leading men, had higher aims. 
They sought to establish a government which 
should not only allow but enforce a religious 
faith and worship which agreed with their own 
convictions of what God required. We wish 
we could say that they sought to erect a State 
allowing all to serve God as they believed he 
commanded, leaving them to give account in 
this matter to him alone. 

But so earnest were they to promote the re- 
ligious interest of the people that the first law 
they made was designed to secure the support 
of their ministers. The second one related to 
the arrest of a man by the name of Morton, 
who was having a good time generally at Merry 
Mount, in what is now Quincy. They thus 
sought to secure for the State a sound faith and 
a correct behavior. 

These emigrants to Salem, Charlestown, 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 2J 

Boston, and vicinity, had severe disciplining 
during their early months in the country. 
Though no Indians lurked behind the rocks and 
trees to dispute their landing, a more relent- 
less foe awaited them. When Winthrop arrived 
at Salem eighty had died, their provisions were 
becoming alarmingly scanty, and their distress 
was very great. Soon after the Governor's 
company and those who immediately succeeded 
them had become settled, two hundred were cut 
down by death. Pestilence and famine chal- 
lenged their right to the land. Consternation 
seized upon them, and a hundred returned home 
before the close of the first year, carrying with 
them discouragement to their friends in En- 
gland. The emigration consequently went on 
slowly, and the next two years scarcely made up 
the losses. 

While in the early part of 163 1 the colonists 
were in the midst of their sore distress from 
sickness and famine, news was brought that a 
ship lay off Nantasket. It proved to be the 
good ship Lyon, Captain William Peirce, with 
twenty passengers, and a large quantity of pro- 
visions. The good news revived every droop- 
ing heart. A fast was to have been observed, by 



28 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

official appointment, on the day after that of the 
arrival. The mourning had been turned into 
joy, and, instead, a day of thanksgiving was 
observed. 

This ship, which sent a thrill of gladness 
throughout the colony, brought Roger Williams 
and his wife Mary. In defiance of the diffi- 
culties to be encountered, the essential character 
of which must have been known to them, they 
had turned their backs on the oppression of the 
Old World. The circumstances of their arrival 
doubtless made the welcome from their brethren 
all the more cordial. What perils awaited him 
among those brethren were wisely hid in the 
future, but were soon developed. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 29 



CHAPTER III. 

GETTING ACQUAINTED. 

]\ /TR. WILLIAMS was now in Boston. 
1V± ]\[Qt^ Qf course, the Boston of to-day. 
He stepped ashore from a small colony ship, 
glad to escape from the narrow, crowded cabin 
after a stormy passage of about nine weeks. 
Men land now from the palace-like accommoda- 
tions of ocean steamers after a trip of ten or 
twelve days. Three wood-covered hills, within 
whose coverts the wild animals were unmolested, 
greeted his view. Now one of those hills has 
been leveled, the other two have lost much of 
their prominence, and the marshy intervals have 
been filled. Winthrop's company, who had 
been on the site but a few months, had put up 
a few huts and pitched a few tents. Probably 
these were scattered about the forest, so as not 
all to be seen at once. Now the State-House 
crowning one of the hills, the numerous church 
spires, the massive public buildings, the dwell- 
ing houses densely crowded together, and the 



30 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

almost countless multitudes which throng the 
streets, or which fly in and out on the steam 
cars, evince time's mighty changes. 

Now Boston is full of luxuries. The follow- 
ing is an early historian's picture of its want and 
misery when Williams arrived : " The weather 
held tolerable until the 24th of December, but 
the cold then came on with violence. Such a 
Christmas eve they had never seen before. 
From that time to the lOth of February their 
chief care was to keep themselves warm, and 
as comfortable in other respects as their scanty 
provisions would permit. The poorer sort were 
much exposed, lying in tents and miserable 
hovels, and many died of the scurvy and other 
distempers. They were so short of provisions 
that many were obliged to live upon clams, 
muscles, and other shell-fish, with ground nuts 
and acorns instead of bread. One who came 
to the Governor's house to complain of his suf- 
ferings was prevented, being informed that even 
there the last batch was in the oven. Some 
instances are mentioned of great calmness and 
resignation in this distress. One man who 
asked his neighbor to a dish of clams, after 
dinner returned thanks to God who had given 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 31 

them to suck of the abundance of the seas, 
and treasures hid in the sands." 

Winthrop found one white man on the penin- 
sula of " Trimountain." His name was WilHam 
Blackstone, a clergyman from England. He 
hospitably invited the new-comers to occupy the 
locality with him, pointing them, as an induce- 
ment, to its sweet springs of water. Would 
that Boston now had only sweet springs, and 
that all the fountains from which its people 
drink were as health-giving as its first settler's 
pure water ! Blackstone soon gave the cold 
shoulder to his invited guests. He declared 
that he left England because he disliked the 
Lords Bishops, and he liked as little the Lord's 
Brethren. He was hard to please. He seemed 
to like his own company, for he moved to a 
lonely cabin in the Indian country near the 
Narragansett Bay. The river on the banks of 
which he settled now bears his name. It has 
generally been stated that he was the first 
settler within the present limits of Rhode Island. 
But he did not go there until 1638, so this honor 
belongs to Roger Williams.* 

* Letter of Samuel G. Drake in the N. E. Historical and 
Genealogical Magazine of October, 1861. 



32 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

Though Wilhams found so Httle else when he 
arrived in Boston, he found an organized Church 
having a Pastor. Arrangements for it had been 
made on shipboard, and carried out by Gov- 
ernor Winthrop and others as soon as they 
landed at Charlestown. It had, of course, come 
with them to the peninsula. Their Church 
covenant was very simple. They said : " We 
promise to walk in all our ways according to 
the rule of the Gospel, and in all sincere con- 
formity to God's holy ordinances, and in mutual 
love and respect to each other, so near as he 
shall give us grace." Mr. Wilson was elected 
"teacher" or Pastor. They laid their hands 
upon his head as do the Bishops in ministerial 
ordination in the Episcopal Church. " But," says 
Winthrop, "with this protestation by all, that it 
was only as a sign of election and confirmation, 
not of any intent that Mr. Wilson should re- 
nounce his ministry that he received in England." 

This Church had no house of worship at this 
time, but erected one the next year. It was a 
humble structure, with thatched roof, and walls 
whose crevices were stopped with mud. Its 
vocal prayers, we doubt not, were as acceptable 
to its Divine Head as if they echoed from the 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 33 

walls of a house costing, as many in Boston do 
now, a hundred thousand dollars ; and its songs 
needed not, for the securement of his favor, the 
swelling, mighty tones of the great organ in 
its Music Hall. It was situated on the south 
side of State-street, near where princely mer- 
chants and bustling business men now congre- 
gate " on 'change." 

This Church promptly and unanimously 
elected Williams teacher.* This was making 
him essentially an associate Pastor. But " upon 
examination and conference," finding them " an 
unseparated people," he declined what must 
otherwise have been to him an exceedingly de- 
sirable position. By "an unseparated people," 
we understand that he meant a people too 
much sympathizing with and fellowshiping the 
Church of England. 

Williams remained in Boston only a few 
weeks. He received a call from brethren in 
Salem, which he gladly accepted, as already it 
had become apparent that he could not see " eye 
to eye " with the principal men of Boston. 

It would be curious enough if we could follow 
him and his wife in their removal to Salem. 

* Proceedings of Mass. His. Soc. 1855-1858, pp. 313-316. 



34 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

It is quite probable that they journeyed on horse- 
back, perhaps on one horse. After crossing 
the Charles river, they slowly picked their way 
along- an Indian trail, through what is now 
Charlestown, near Bunker Hill, through Somer- 
ville, Maiden, and Lynn, fording the streams, 
making quite a circuit at times to avoid boggy 
swamps or precipitous rocks, arriving at Salem 
at nightfall, after a long and weary day's jour- 
ney. If they had waited until our day before 
taking their journey they would have stepped 
into the Eastern Depot, taken the " lightning 
train," heard the conductor say "All aboard," 
chatted about half an hour, and then left at the 
call, " Salem." 

The hearts of the tired travelers were made 
glad, we have no doubt, when they reached their 
stopping-place. Ex-Governor Endicott, who 
had been there almost three years, had a Gov- 
ernor's house to which to invite them, and, what 
was better, had a generous and warm heart with 
which he cheered them. His Pastor, the Rev. 
Mr. Skelton, bade them welcome. A goodly 
settlement contrasted cheerfully with the rough 
beginning at Boston. The Rev. Francis Hig- 
ginson, who had brought with him about two 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 35 

years before a company of two hundred per- 
sons, had just died. He was an eloquent 
preacher, a ripe scholar, and an eminent Chris- 
tian. The tears were still moistenins: the faces 
of his bereaved flock. Higginson on his arrival 
had found " about halfe a score of houses, and 
a faire house newly built for the Governour ; " 
and he added, in his account sent to London : 
" We found abundance of corn planted by them, 
very good and well liking." It was too early in 
the season for Williams to be cheered by the 
sight of corn, even in the blade, and looking at 
the soil, mostly sandy, he perhaps wondered 
how any thing ever grew in it. The town was 
situated on a neck of land made by two arms 
of the sea, called the North and South rivers. 
Looking seaward, his soul must have been 
stirred by the beautiful and grand scenery. 
The varied and rocky shore line presented a 
defiant barrier to the sea, whose waves, as they 
dashed against it, rolled back in angry foam, or 
floated away in misty clouds. The bay, as far 
as the eye could reach, was studded with numer- 
ous islands, some of which lifted their cracffry 
heads as the sullen custodians of the coast, 

while others smiled with springing verdure, pre- 
3 



36 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

paring a summer greenness to welcome the 
coming, ocean-weary emigrants. Inland was 
an almost unbroken forest which a man of more 
lively imagination might have peopled with lurk- 
ing savages and ferocious beasts, and which the' 
misinformed Higginson did make the hiding 
place of prowling lions. A little later in the sea- 
son Williams saw the unpromising soil about the 
settlement bearing a bountiful crop of all neces- 
sary produce under the prompting "of a fishing 
once in three years," after the Indian fashion. 

With these goodly surroundings, the company 
of Christian friends, and a call from the people 
to make up, as far as possible, the loss of their 
late " teacher," by becoming an assistant to Mr. 
Skelton, Mr. Williams and his wife must have 
felt that their lines had fallen in a pleasant 
place. 

The people of Salem, like those of Boston, 
had been prompt in providing the means of 
supporting a minister. Soon after the arrival 
of Mr. Higginson, thirty persons entered into a 
written covenant in the formation of a Church. 
Its terms were very liberal, and its statements 
simple. The Puritan Churches of those days 
considered two ministers necessary to the com- 



Foot-prints o£ Roger Williams. 37 

plete instruction of their people. They did not 
differ much in their duties, and answered pretty 
well to the senior and junior Pastors of the 
present day. They had also Ruling Elders and 
Deacons, having a general relation to the official 
character of Deacons in the Congregational 
Churches now. 

The Salem Church ordained, after the manner 
of Winthrop's people, Mr. Skelton, Pastor, and 
Mr. Higginson, teacher. 

This new Church in the wilderness, having a 
vivid remembrance of the oppression they suf- 
fered in the. Old World from their spiritual 
rulers, were very jealous of their rights. They 
invited Governor Bradford and some of his 
brethren of the Plymouth Pilgrim Church to 
come and take a part in the ceremony. But 
before these guests were permitted to give the 
right hand of fellowship they were required to 
disclaim obtaining by this act any right of inter- 
ference or control. The Pilgrims might have 
smiled at such caution, but probably their own 
experience had taught them to think it was all 
right. 

Thus in seeming peace was this infant Church 
cradled, with no frowning King to thunder 



38 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

against it, nor agent of the Lord Bishop to say, 
"Conform; be brief; no words." But a cloud 
appeared in their sunny sky. Several influen- 
tial men, the leaders of whom were John and 
Samuel ]kown, thought a reform of the cere- 
monies of worship in the father-land the desir- 
able course, and disapproved of the present 
entire rejection of them. So they set up a sep- 
arate place of worship, and used in their con- 
gregation the book of common prayer. But, as 
we have stated, our Puritan fathers sought this 
far-off land, and submitted to its self-denials, to 
form a Church and State after tJieir pattern. 
Those wishing a different one should, they in- 
sisted, seek for themselves a nook where they 
could do the same. So the gentlemen brothers 
Brown were informed that they had leave to 
return to England. They understood that this 
hint meant, Go ! and they went. Their brethren 
of like faith subsided into conformity. 

This cloud had scarcely been dissipated from 
the sky of the Salem Church when Roger Will- 
iams came, and new difficulties sprang up. Now 
their call for his services caused a muttering 
tlumder from a cloud dark and tlireatening, ris- 
in£r in the direction of Boston. The brethren 



J:. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 39 

there did not like some items of the proposed 
Pastor's faith. He had told them that they 
ought to repent of their fault in having had 
communion with the Churches in England. He 
even refused to join in their public worship, 
because they did not make a public declaration 
of such repentance. He had further declared 
to them th^t in his opinion the Courts should 
not punish violations of the first four of the ten 
commandments, because they contained require- 
ments which concerned not the State, but men's 
consciences only, and so were to be left to them 
and God. 

The Court at Boston wrote to ex-Governor 
Endicott, of Salem, that, in view of these sen- 
timents avowed by Williams, they were sur- 
prised they should choose him without consult- 
ing them. 

On the very day that this letter of the Court 
was written, the Salem people, fully aware of the 
objections it expressed, settled Williams as their 
minister. 

Every person now will say that the Salem 
Church was right. Why need rulers fifteen 
miles away concern themselves about the Salem 
society's matters } But we shall further see 



40 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

that the interference of the authorities was con- 
sistent with the notions of the Puritan Churches 
of that day concerning right and duty. 

As to the matters of difference between Will- 
iams and the Boston ministers, and precisely 
v/hat was done or believed which caused the 
coldness, we do not know. But so far as we 
can understand them, as set forth in the letter 
of the Court, they were small occasions indeed 
for the separation of brethren. Why could they 
not '* think and let think } " Some believe that 
jealousy of Salem on the part of Boston was 
in part the secret spring of this interference, 
for Salem aspired at this time to be the capital 
of the colony. But we prefer to believe only 
what the Court avowed. 

The settlement of Williams at Salem occurred 
in April, 163 1, and before the year closed the 
troubles made his place uncomfortable, and he 
sought a quiet refuge by a removal to the more 
liberal Pilgrims at Plymouth. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 41 



CHAPTER IV. 

WILLIAMS AT PLYMOUTH. 

FROM Salem to Plymouth must have been, 
to Mr. Williams and his family, in many 
respects a pleasant change. The Pilgrims had 
been eleven years in the country, toiling dili-i 
gently to improve their homes ; but the Salenr 
settlement, as we have seen, was only three years 
old. True, the Bay Colony had more money 
to expend in family conveniences, yet we think 
that Williams and his wife found more at 
Plymouth to remind them of the father-land 
than they had found since coming to America. 
From the shore where the Pilgrims had landed 
to the hill immediately inland they had already 
quite a busy, populous street. Dwellings, with 
enclosed lots and cultivated gardens, Hned each 
side of it. Their store-house was near the 
shore end of the street, and at the other end, 
on the top of the hill, was their '* block-house," 
bristling with cannon, of no very formidable 
character as things go now, but terrific, no doubt, 



42 Foot-prints of Roga- Williams. 

to their Indian foes. The whole settlement was 
inclosed with a stockade, and the military 
genius of Captain Standish had given quite a 
warlike aspect to this Christian encampment. 
This would not, we think, strike the pacific spirit 
of their guest favorably, though he must have 
seen its justification in their peculiar situation. 
Once domiciled among the Pilgrims, a man 
of cultivated mind and Christian heart like 
Williams could not fail to like them. Until a 
house could be built for him he would be likely 
to live with their Pastor, Ralph Smith, or with 
their Elder, William Brewster ; perhaps they all, 
for the time, made one family. Whether this 
was so or not, these three religious teachers, 
and Standish the soldier, and Bradford and 
Winslow, the civil rulers, must have been often 
together — a goodly company. All except Smith 
possessed sharp lines of character, all were 
students and thinkers, and every one felt the 
pressure of the stirring times in which they 
lived, and the perils of the position in which 
they were placed. What earnest discussions 
there must have been ! What serious debates 
must have occurred in that little company con- 
cerning weighty matters of Church and State ! 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 43 

In expounding great principles, wisely applicable 
to all men and all ages, Williams was the prince 
of the group. But these good men would not 
always in their fireside meetings be talking of 
theories. They were practical men, and their 
positions demanded work. They were all much 
concerned — perhaps we ought to except the 
soldier — in the great matter of holy living, 
When this theme was the subject of conversa- 
tion, as it would be often, none could speak 
more wisely than the devout Brewster. We 
think they all listened willingly and with great 
profit to his luminous expositions of God's 
word, which he read in the original languages, 
and to the results of his long experience of the 
saving power and rich comforts of the grace 
of God. When questions of defense against 
the savages were in debate, it was Standish's 
turn to be chief adviser ; and when the weighty 
business concerns of the colony came up for 
friendly counsel, the sound judgment of Brad- 
ford, and, more especially, the comprehensive 
business mind of Winslow, were brought into 
prominence. Thus in turn they were teachers 
and learners, and thus they strengthened each 
other's hands and hearts. 



44 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

This group at the Pilgrim fireside, with its 
additions from time to time, had its social chats 
in which matters of personal interest w^ere re- 
lated — incidents of trials and triumphs which 
increased the bond of aftection between relater 
and hearers. If the author had been there he 
could have written, no doubt, several additional 
chapters, which now must be forever unwritten, 
concerning ]\'Ir. Williams' previous history. 
Though debarred from this privilege, we are safe 
in reporting some of the talk of the Mayflower 
men, and, as we are to accompany Williams in 
his stay with them during about two years, we 
shall be well entertained by the principal facts 
concerning their previous eleven years at 
Plymouth. 

The sickness of the Pilgrims just after their 
landing was a subject of sad conversation. One 
half of their number died, among whom was 
Carver, their Governor. All the survivors ex- 
cept seven were prostrate with disease at one 
time. Bradford often held Williams' willing 
ears in rehearsing the incidents of those anx- 
ious days when Brewster and Standish, two of 
the favored seven, with a true Christian devo- 
tion, spared not themselves in unpleasant 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 45 

drudgery or exposure to relieve their suffer- 
ing brethren. Brewster's turn came to lead the 
conversation, when the incidents of the third 
summer were topics of conversation. The ter- 
rible drought which reduced them to a very 
scanty allowance of food, making " treasures in 
the sand " a luxury, was glowingly depicted. 
The fast which it occasioned, the personal hu- 
miliations, the confessions of private and public 
sins, and the earnest supplication for Divine 
help, were related with deep feeling. But 
Brewster dwelt with devout gratitude, shared by 
all his listening friends, upon the gracious an- 
swers to these prayers — the coming of the 
" soft, sweet, and joyous showers," reviving not 
only the parched fields, but their ''drooping 
graces." Then followed a glad account of the 
harvest which was gathered in the fall and the 
consequent Thanksgiving day — the mother of 
all " Thanksgiving days," which have extended 
from ocean to ocean, and from Canada to the 
Gulf of Mexico, causing the yearly repetition 
of the Pilgrim story in almost every home of 
our wide extended country. 

Bradford has left in his journal evidence of 
his taste for treasuring up the incidents of the 



4-6 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

daily life of the Pilgrims. So we think he would 
tell the stories of their explorations about Cape 
Cod, and in the vicinity of what is now Charles- 
town and Boston, to ascertain the temper of 
their Indian neighbors, but more especially to 
trade with them for furs and corn. He did 
not forget their many early scares about the In- 
dians, at which the group could afford to laugh. 
But the fact of the final coming of the Chief 
Massasoit and his warriors, their treaty with 
him, and his faithful performance thus far of its 
conditions, was dwelt upon with gratitude to 
God. 

When Standish was prominent in the talk, he 
must have referred to a plot by a bold, low- 
minded savage to cut off by Indian butchery a 
new colony near Plymouth, and to include after- 
ward the Pilgrims in the ruin. But we do not 
think he dwelt in detail upon his hand to hand 
fight with the conspirator Wituwamat, and his 
taking his head off, and bringing it to Plymouth, 
and placing it at the gate of their defenses to 
intimidate their enemies. Such sad affairs the 
Pilgrims felt to be an imposed necessity which 
they would willingly forget. Very likely when 
this incident was talked about that Williams 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 47 

in his outspoken way called in question the 
necessity of the harsh measure to secure safety ; 
but we think the Pilgrims made a good case in 
their own defense. 

The Pilgrims at the time Williams went 
among them were burdened with a heavy debt, 
incurred in the expense of transporting them- 
selves and friends to the New World. It greatly 
afflicted them not only before but for many 
years after this time. Winslow and Standish 
had at different times returned to England in 
reference to it. Allerton, one of the Mayflower 
men, had been there a long time as their confi- 
dential agent, and had so mismanaged as to in- 
crease their debt, and had just been dismissed 
from their service, if not in disgrace, with feel- 
ings of great dissatisfaction toward him. This 
was a painful theme of talk, and we doubt 
whether Mr. Williams could give the Pilgrims 
any advice concerning these matters worth tak- 
ing. It is certain that he never managed finan- 
cial matters well for himself, though for others 
he sometimes did better. 

On Mr. Williams' arrival at Plymouth he 
was made by the Plymouth Church assistant 
Pastor, without the fear of the Boston authori- 



48 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

ties before their eyes. The principal Pastor, 
Ralph Smith, had a few years before been found 
in distress at Nantasket. John Robinson, their 
Pastor in Holland, with whom they had hoped 
to be re-united in the New World, had died in 
1625 — about seven years before. Before Smith's 
arrival they had made two efforts to secure a 
Pastor. The first, after a vexatious trial, proved 
to them by his conduct that he had never known 
the divine remedy for a diseased heart. The 
second, an estimable young man, was afflicted 
with a disease of the brain, and was soon re- 
turned to England. But covering the whole 
time which they had been without a Pastor, 
Brewster, their Elder, had, without the name 
and formality of a preacher, been to them a God- 
approved teacher of religion. 

Leaving the Pilgrims for a short time to be- 
come better acquainted with their assistant Pas- 
tor before we inquire how they liked him, we 
will more narrowly observe the manner in which 
Williams employs his time at Plymouth. We 
are prepared to learn that he is seeking to do 
good, but may be surprised at the method he 
adopts to secure that end. He is leaving the 
comfortable home and good company of the 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 49 

Pilgrims and his own wife, and is spending 
much of his time in the disgusting wigwams 
and disagreeable society of the heathen Indians. 
His object is to learn their language, that he 
may impart to them a knowledge of the Saviour 
of men, and lead them through him from sin 
to holiness, and so from earth to heaven. The 
end sought is worthy of his Christian heart, and 
of the time and self-sacrificing toil it will re- 
quire. This noble enterprise has been prompted, 
we think, by what he has learned concerning 
Massasoit and his people. Winslow has spent 
several days and nights with his savage Majesty, 
and has given Williams all the details of court 
manners and style of living. So WilHams 
knows what price he is to pay for the privilege 
of speaking of Jesus to the savages. Some of 
these details given in reference to Winslow's 
first visit to the King will show in part what 
that price is. The first night the visitor went 
to bed supperless, not for lack of hospitality, 
but because of the destitution of food at head- 
quarters. He was permitted, however, to share 
the royal couch, which was made of planks with 
a single mat thrown over them. The Queen 
slept across the foot of the same bed. Swarms 



50 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

of vermin, added to weariness, cold, and hunger, 
drove sleep from the Pilgrim. The Indians 
soothed themselves to sleep by a dismal chant- 
ing, to which the musquitoes added their buzz- 
ing lullaby. Such was the night. During the 
day his eyes were offended by the constant 
sight of greasy, painted, half-naked men and 
women, and at all times his nostrils assailed by 
" offensive and poisonous odors." 

With such human beings in such abodes, 
Williams joyfully spent much of the time of 
his Plymouth pastorate. 

Turning to Plymouth, we are able to look in 
upon their Sabbath worship, and see the part 
that Williams takes in it. 

In September, 1632, Roger Williams having 
been in Plymouth a year. Governor Winthrop, 
of Massachusetts, his warm, steadfast Christian 
friend, and stern official opponent, made that 
place a visit. His Pastor, Mr. Wilson, and 
others accompanied him. The party landed 
from a vessel at what is now North Weymouth, 
and walked from thence to Plymouth. Governor 
Bradford and his officials met them out of town, 
and escorted them in. Rulers in those days 
magnified their office with due ceremony. The 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 5 i 

visitors were feasted at the Governor's house. 
When the Sabbath came the whole company 
went to Church. The block-house audience 
of stern men, resolute but kindly looking women, 
and hardy children, had never worn a pleasanter 
aspect. A few Indians were doubtless attentive 
listeners to the service, among whom Hobomok, 
the tried friend of the Pilgrims, was conspicu- 
ous. In the morning was administered the 
sacrament of the Lord's Supper, of which they all 
partook, Williams having wisely laid aside some 
of the scruples which so offended his friends at 
Boston. In the afternoon they were again at 
the house of God. According to their custom, 
Williams " propounded a question " — which 
means, we suppose, a question founded upon 
some cited text of Scripture. The Pastor, Mr. 
Smith, spoke upon this question. He was fol- 
lowed by Mr. Williams, Governor Bradford, 
Elder Brewster, and several of the congregation, 
all keeping to the question. Then, on invita- 
tion. Governor Winthrop and Mr. Wilson spoke 
upon it. After this. Deacon Fuller reminded 
the congregation of the duty of contribution. 
Then followed not the passing of the contribu- 
tion box round, but the marching of the con- 
I 4 



52 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. ; 

gregation to it at the Deacon's seat, depositing^ 
their gifts, and returning to their places. 

This must have been a very enjoyable time. 
It prepares us for Bradford's declaration con- 
cerning Williams. Here it is : " He was freely 
entertained among us according to our poor 
ability. He exercised his gifts among us, and 
after some time was admitted a member of the 
Church. His preaching was well approved, for 
the benefit of which I shall bless God. I am 
thankful to him even for his sharpest admoni- 
tions and reproofs, so far as they agreed with 
truth." 

Toward the close of his stay with the Pil- 
grims, an interesting incident occurred in Mr. 
Williams' domestic circle. It was the birth of 
his eldest daughter, who was named Mary, after 
her mother. 

The time was now come for Mr. Williams to 
leave Plymouth. He had laid the foundation 
of a critical acquaintance with the Indian 
language, and, what was scarcely less valuable, 
inspired a confidence in his integrity and benev- 
olence in the minds of leading sachems. The 
Church at Salem was fearing the rapid decline 
of Mr. Skelton's health, and invited Williams 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 53 

to become his assistant. The majority of the 
Pilgrims were reluctant to have him depart, so 
warm had become their Christian attachment. 
Elder Brewster, however, favored his dismissal. 
Difference of opinion on grave matters had 
been developed, it seems, between Williams and 
some of the leading men. A small number of 
the Pilgrim Church were so attached to Mr. 
Williams that they obtained their dismissal at 
the same time, and accompanied him to Salem. 
His departure from Plymouth took place in 
the latter part of August, 1633. 




54 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 



CHAPTER V. 

AMONG OLTJ FRIENDS. 

MR. WILLIAMS, with his wife anrl little 
Mary, found himself at once pleasantly 
situated, so far as his relations to the Church 
and community were concerned. Their re- 
newed call shows that their first love was not 
abated. The senior Lastor, Mr. vSkeltfjn, wliom 
in his declining health he came to assist, was a 
tried friend of kindred spirit. An incidental 
but impr)rtant matter of consideration to the 
faithful shepherd was the j:^enerous provision 
made for his domestic comfort. When P'rancis 
Higginson arrived in 1629 he brought orders 
from the London Company to Governor I'^ndi- 
cott to buiM for him a parsonage at the jjiiblic 
ex|jense. This was promptly done, and another 
was provided for Mr. Skelton. No doubt a 
comfortable one was provided for Mr. Williams. 
We suppose it was a humble house in size, 
architecture, and furnisliing, but it was a Chris- 
tian home, which gave it a beautiful adorning 



Foot-prints of Koi^vr Williams. 55 

'ri\out;h the Socict\' h.ul two publi*.* instiiict- 
ors, it h.ul no houso ot' woiship. Ai\ iint\iiishi\l 
biiiKlini; ot" oiio story Wvis being" tcmpoiuiily 
t>ocMipioil. That important sotting apart oi 
v*^koltvMi auil 1 ligginsv^n toi iho ministry in i6jo, 
whuli wo ha\o nolivwl. piobabU took plaoo in 
this huiUhng, nnlcss, it being nvi*.lsnmn\er, the 
service took the torn\ i>f a grove meeting, whieh 
is not unhkeh. W hat eouKl he more appro- 
jMiale than that the serxiee eonneeted with the 
orguni/alion ot tlie tust Chureh ever gathereJ 
in New haigltmk and the tirst ministerial orilina- 
tiiMi. .shouKl be unvkM the open eanojw' ot" heaven ! 
'I'his auvl ihv' PUnivMith Chureh, a gvH>ill\ pkuit 
tiansleiieil at m\ eaiher date to New lu\gkind 
soik wv'ie then the vml\ I'hurehes. 

It wouki he pkMsanl now, sinee I\lr. \\'ilhan\s 
is so ei>mtoitahl\ situated among his tkn'k. to 
kH>k mlo then nmei Tlimeh hte. No doubt 
thoie were seasons ot song and ot' prayer in the 
*' unt\nishcHl buikhng " \ei\ preeious tv> the 
jH'i'pk^ i>t (iod. It must ha\v^ been \ei\ eokl 
thoie in the wmtva seasvm. auvl \ei\ hkeb they 
woiv' on stvMuiN v'-^undavs driwMi to son\e wovdtl^y 
bu'lhva'-. lai;-.o kitehvMi. and around his ehv\M • 
lul lue hsioui'd lv» ihi.' woid i>uMehevl. A 



56 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

religious service in the evening was not, we pre- 
sume, ever attempted. 

There is a pleasant record by an old author, 
writing only five years later than Williams' com- 
ing to Salem, of the manner of receiving persons 
into the Church. This writer says that the ap- 
plicants talked with the Pastors in private, who, 
if they w^ere satisfied with the genuineness of 
their conversion, proposed them at the next 
public meeting, where the merits of their case 
might be discussed. It was common in the 
Boston Churches for the men only who were 
seeking admission to relate their experience in 
these general assemblies ; the Pastors reported 
for the women. But this old writer says : " At 
Salem the women speak for themselves, for the 
most part, in the Church ; but of late it is said 
they do this upon the week days there, and 
nothing is done on Sunday but their entrance 
into covenant." 

This is an interesting fact that the first Puri- 
tan New England Church admitted at their 
public meetings the recital by the sisters of 
their Christian experience. Was this due to 
the broad views of Roger Williams concerning 
Christian duty and privilege .'* 



■ /■#»V::- 




'■""l%/////wlll|l||||ll!!lill\§^i 
fen 



If WfM''^;fipi'i!n 




Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 59 

The next year after Williams' return to Salem 
the Society appropriated five hundred dollars 
for the building of a house of worship. A Mr. 
Norton took the contract for that purpose and 
at that sum. It was, when completed, twenty 
feet in length, seventeen in width, and twelve 
in the height of its posts. It had a gallery over 
the door at the entrance, and a minister's seat 
at the opposite side. The seats for the people 
were very rough if they were in keeping with 
the other parts of the building, probably split 
logs without backs. 

We have no account of the dedicatory serv- 
ice. No doubt that on the occasion the people 
came from their already scattered homes in the 
immediate town and vicinity. The Pastor was 
full of thanksgiving and hope, and the people 
of joy. We may well believe that no later 
house built by their descendants, of splendid 
architectural beauty and costly furnishing, has 
been hailed with greater gladness. Mr. Will- 
iams was indeed among his friends. 



6o Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 



CHAPTER VI. 

IN PERILS AMONG BRETHREN. 

OVER the pleasant pastoral field of Salem 
Williams soon saw the clouds gathering. 
They were at first very small, dark specks in the 
horizon — very trifling aftairs certainly to be the 
hiding places of tempests so terrific as those 
which followed. 

In the November following the return of 
Williams, certain " ministers' meetings " were 
pressed upon the notice of himself and col- 
league. They appear to have been gatherings 
of the Pastors of Boston, Charlestown, and 
Saugus, in turn at their parsonages, for mutual 
pleasure and profit. Mr. Skelton, smarting, as 
most of the Puritan clergymen had been made 
to smart, under the oppressive priestly rule of 
the old country, thought he saw a future " pres- 
bytery," or " superintendency," or some such 
monster breeding in these meetings. Like a 
faithful watchman, he blew the alarm in Zion. 
If it was a false alarm, it proved at least his 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 6 1 

watchful jealousy. Williams sympathized with 
his fears, but was not foremost in awakening 
the flock. When other charges were brought 
against him, this seems to have been remem- 
bered, and has since been urged to his dispar- 
agement. 

There was another profound question of the 
times into which Williams is said to have been 
drawn, although there is no reliable evidence 
that he took a prominent part in its discussion. 
It was, " Shall the women wear vails in the re- 
ligious assemblies t " We commend it to the 
consideration of the Freshmen of our colleges. 
This question was rife in the colony when Will- 
iams came to Salem, and Governor Endicott 
and his Pastor, Skelton, were committed to the 
affirmative side. At a lecture in Boston, while 
WilUams was yet in Plymouth, Endicott and one 
of the greatest and best of the ministers, John 
Cotton, debated this question before the people. 
The disputants waxed so warm that the Governor, 
who presided, "perceiving it to grow to some 
earnestness," interposed and closed the meeting. 

This trifling question too has been unjustly 
connected with Williams' name to his dispar- 
agement. 



62 Foot-pi'ints of Roger Williams. 

But more serious matters connected with Mr. 
Williams soon crowded these out of sight. 
While at Plymouth he wrote his views of certain 
political questions of no very vital importance, 
and presented them to the Governor and Coun- 
cil of that colony, which seem not to have 
disturbed the good feeling toward him among 
the Pilgrims, nor alarmed them in anywise. 
Now, Williams being in the Bay Colony, its 
Governor requires a copy of him, though the 
document had been written for the private satis- 
faction of the Plymouth authorities alone. His 
Excellency reads it and is alarmed. He and 
his Council consult the ministers, who, though 
not admitted as legal members of the govern- 
ment, are an ever ready and decisive power out- 
side of it. They read Mr. Williams' treatise, 
and ''much condemn his error and presump- 
tion." The Court then order that he should be 
"convented" at their next session — that is, 
brought before their honors " to be censured." 
The Governor wrote to Endicott, telling him 
what had been done, and requested him "to 
deal with" his heretical Pastor to secure his 
retraction of his document. Williams wisely 
added no fuel to this kindling fire, but answered 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 63 

the disturbed authorities in a concihatory spirit. 
He even offered his manuscript, or any part of 
it, to be burnt. At the next Court he gave satis- 
faction as to his intention and loyalty, and the 
affair ended. 

The reader would like to know what the 
opinions of Williams were which made such a 
stir. According to the statement of them by 
the Court they were : That King James told a 
solemn public lie when he said in his patent 
that he was the first Christian Prince who dis- 
covered New England ; that, further, the King 
was guilty of blasphemy in calling Europe 
Christendom or the Christian world ; and, still 
further, that he applied certain passages in 
Revelations to the reigning King, Charles. 
The Court does not say what passages they 
were. 

We do not wonder that " the Council on fur- 
ther examination found the matters not to be so 
evil as they first seemed." To see any evil in 
them they doubtless looked through their fears 
of the home government. 

This cloud having passed away, the Salem 

minister was allowed to pursue his official duties 

I in peace for nearly a year. In August, 1634, 



64 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

Mr. Skelton died. The Church soon invited 
the assistant to be ordained as a regular Pastor. 
The magistrates sent them their disapproval of 
such proposed ordination. The Church never- 
theless proceeded and placed the man of their 
choice over them as " teacher." He had won 
the confidence of the professed Christians, and 
the people generally, as a true Christian, a faith- 
ful minister, and a man of ability. 

In November of the same year Mr. Williams 
was again summoned before the Court. His 
sin consisted in persisting to talk against the 
King's patent, which he said could not give a 
good title to lands occupied by the Indians 
without a purchase from them. This the King 
claimed in the patent to do, though the colonies 
had not acted upon that claim, but satisfied the 
Indians. It would seem, then, that the authori- 
ties did not so much object to the opinion as 
the talk about it, especially the talk by Williams. 
They claimed that he promised to keep his 
tongue still on the matter, though we have no 
account of his understanding of the engage- 
ment. 

From this time to the following April, 1635, 
there was a lull in the gathering storm of con- 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams, 65 

tention. The court then met and cited WilUams 
before them on a new complaint. They cer- 
tainly kept a tireless watch of their Salem 
neighbor. This time : " The occasion was for 
that he had taught publicly that a magistrate 
ought not to tender an oath to an unregenerate 
man, for that we thereby have communion with 
a wicked man in the worship of God, and cause 
him to take the name of God in vain." 

Williams, it appears from some of his later 
writings, had suffered financial loss in the En- 
glish court from their imposition of oaths he 
could not conscientiously take, and he had 
there become impressed that the exacting of 
oaths on trifling occasions caused men to treat 
God's name lightly. From this he had come 
to believe an oath a part of worship, and so im- 
proper for unrenewed men ; and as they were 
improper for such to take, it was wrong for 
courts to require them. 

The penalty imposed upon Williams at this 
time by the court for this opinion was a very 
fitting one for Christian men to inflict and for 
a good man to receive. They required him to 
debate the matter before them with the minis- 
ters. He had his parishioner, Endicott, on his 



66 Foot-pi'ints of Roger Williams. 

side. Williams and Endicott were " very clear- 
ly confuted," in the estimation of their oppo- 
nents, and, as both sides usually triumph in 
such cases, it must have proved a good time all 
round. 

But the debate about oaths proved not to be 
the end of the affair. The magistrates being 
alarmed about " some Episcopal and malignant 
practices against the country," demanded of all 
the freemen an oath of fidelity to the laws of 
the colony. This was in addition to an oath 
they had already taken to yield obedience to all 
laws not in conflict with the laws of the mother 
country. The new oath made the colony su- 
preme. This new test of fidelity Mr. Williams 
"vehemently withstood," leading the willing 
opposition of many others. It was now the 
Court's turn to take the back track. They 
yielded to the many and. strong objections of 
the people, being "forced to desist from that 
proceeding." 

It was near 4he time of the conflict on the 
oath question that Endicott, at Salem, cut the 
cross from the national flag. This unwise act 
was prompted, no doubt, by a feeling common 
to the Puritans, that this symbol was one of the 



Foot-pTints of Roger Williams. 6y 

relics of Popery. The Court punished Endicott 
for this act by declaring that he should be inca- 
pable of holding any public office for one year. 
Williams' name has been connected with this 
act. He undoubtedly preached against Popish 
symbols, but there is no proof that he advised 
Endicott's application of his preaching, and as 
the Court did not blame him in the matter, we 
may safely assume that he was not to be blamed. 
At the Court before which Endicott was cited, 
a petition was received from the people of Sa- 
lem concerning some lands in Marblehead 
which they claimed as theirs. The Court re- 
plied, in effect : " You ordained Williams con- 
trary to our wishes, and we wont give you your 
lands ! " The Salem people keenly felt this 
wrong, and appealed, by letters sent to all the 
Churches, to the constituents of the members 
of the Court. It will be remembered that no 
man could vote who was not a church-member, 
so the Salem people justly held their brethren 
in the Churches responsible for what their repre- 
sentatives had done. These letters the Court 
resented by denying at their next session the 
representatives from Salem their seats. At a 
little later time Endicott justified before the 



6S 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 



Court these letters, and protested against the 
unwarranted course of its members. The Court 
gave the customary reply of arbitrary power, 
by putting him in prison until he acknowledged 
his fault in the matter. 




Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 69 



CHAPTER VII. 

MORE PERILS. 

THE Court could not be thus troubled by 
the Salem people and not consider that 
their Pastor was in part the troubler. Their 
worships, at the session which rejected the 
representatives., summoned Williams before 
them, " to answer for divers dangerous opin- 
ions." They brought up against him the opin- 
ions for which he had before been called to an- 
swer. In addition, they charged him with 
believing " that a man ought not to pray with 
an unregenerate person, though wife or child; 
and that a man ought not to give thanks after 
the sacrament nor after meat." 

Unworthy matters to be persistently empha- 
sized, we should say, if Williams really did so ; 
but no concern of the magistrates any way. 
Whether he really held the opinions as above 
stated is not quite certain. It must be remem- 
bered that we have only his opponents' render- 
ing of his sentiments. We may not charge them 



70 Footprints of Roger Williams. 

with intentional misrepresentation, but it is plain 
that the controversy between Williams and them 
had become too heated for fairness. The time 
for argument on the part of the authorities 
had closed, and they informed the Salem people 
and their minister that at their next session 
they should expect an acknowledgment of their 
errors of doctrine and fault of conduct in the 
matter of the letters and the settling of their 
Pastor. Failing to do this, sentence against 
them would be executed. 

Williams' health failed under the pressure of 
his professional duties and these legal vexations. 
From his sick room he wrote to his Church in 
seeming heat — perhaps more in sorrow than in 
anger. He declared to them that, as things 
stood, " he could not communicate with the 
Churches in the Bay." He went even further, j; 
saying to his brethren and sisters : " If you 
communicate with them, I will not with you." 

" Oppression makes a wise man mad." It 
may be that Williams was somewhat beside 
himself in taking the latter position. We doubt 
not it loosened in a degree the strong cords of : 
affection which had to this moment bound his 
people to him, and prepared them for the abject 



Foot-prints of Roger Williains. 71 

submission to the magistrates at his expense, 
which soon followed. 

The Court which was in session in October 
carried matters with a high hand. Endicott 
had been disqualified for office for indorsing 
the letters to the Churches. They now demand 
the names of all those of Salem who are known 
to approve of them. Williams was, of course, 
cited before them, for what was a Court at such 
a time without his presence } The only charges 
I against him now are the two letters. He bold- 
ly defended their contents against the argu- 
ments of Hooker, who was appointed to dis- 
pute with him. At the close of the discussion 
the parties remained in the same relation to 
each other as at its beginning, except a prob- 
ably wider alienation of feeling. 

Failing to secure Williams' submission, the 
authorities sentenced him to banishment beyond 
the bounds of their colony. The sentence was 
to take effect within six weeks. The ministers, 
as usual, were present by invitation, and all but 
one voted for banishment. 

Mr. Williams returned to Salem with this 
sentence hanging over him. He found his 
Church at the feet of the ma2:istrates. We 



72 Foot-prints of Roger Williams, 

cannot say how large an influence in bringing 
them into this humble position the question of 
their litigated lands had, but it is a matter of 
record that what was refused because they did 
not submit was granted soon after they had 
written "an humble submission to the magis- 
trates, acknowledging their fault in joining with 
Mr. Williams in that letter to the Churches 
against them, etc." 

Why should not the Church at Salem have 
submitted 1 The Court, which was only the 
other Churches acting through their chosen 
representatives, did but require of them the 
application of the doctrine which they had im- 
posed upon the Browns, whom they had sent 
over the sea for not agreeing in opinion with 
them. Very likely they learned by their con- 
test with the Churches that enforced conformity 
made occasion for blows which were pleasanter 
to give than to receive. 

Mr. Williams, forsaken by his Church, and 
chided by his wife for not yielding, still stood 
firm. The people, if they did not agree with 
his opinions, admired his character, for an old ; 
historian says : " The whole town of Salem was ■ 
in an uproar at the decree of banishment, for 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 73 

he was esteemed an honest, disinterested man, 
and of popular talents in the pulpit." Many 
prepared to show the sincerity of their attach- 
ment by following in his wanderings. 

The Court so far relented as to extend the 
time of his departure to the following spring, 
on conditions that he should not disseminate 
his opinions. Abstinence from talking of what 
he believed was never a grace with Williams. 
He continued to freely ventilate his notions to 
those who came to his house, and many were 
made of the same mind, for " they were much 
taken with the apprehension of his godliness." 
This would not do. He was cited to Boston 
" to be shipped." He declined going, saying 
that it would be at the hazard of his life. The 
authorities sent a boat round to Salem to carry 
him on board a ship lying at Nantasket, just 
ready to sail for England. Williams understood 
what was intended. The bitterness of the 
weather made him fear such a voyage. Besides, 

I he had no occasion for a return to the father- 
land, believing that God had work for him in 

[ America. So when the boat arrived, the prey 
had escaped. 

It is pleasant to record the fact that this 



74 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

secret escape was prompted by a private, friendly 
letter from the then ex-Governor Winthrop. 
The Governor, while acting officially at times 
against Williams, was, and ever remained, a 
warm personal friend. In fact, there is no evi- 
dence of malice on the part of the Court in these 
oppressive proceedings, their errors being rather 
of the head than the heart. The respect, and 
even love, manifested by many of Williams' 
prosecutors is not only creditable to them, but 
shows the intrinsic greatness and excellence of 
his own character. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 75 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CAST OUT. 

IN going forth into the stormy winter of 
January, 1636, Mr. WilHams left lands of 
his own, and a house which he had either pur- 
chased or built. He left, too, wife and children, 
the eldest child being but a little over two 
years of age, and the youngest scarcely three 
months. The last, born, of course, in the midst 
of his bitterest conflicts, he named Freeborn. 
It was a Puritan practice to note some passing 
event or present feeling by the names given to 
newborn children. The little Freeborn's name 
indicated her father's faith that men should be 
free from their birth. 

It does not seem probable that any one 
accompanied Williams, as he left his home by 
stealth, as a hunted outlaw. He took a pocket 
compass to guide him through the pathless for- 
est, which is among the preserved mementoes 
of his journey. He would, we think, take the 
Boston road, over which he had so often trav- 



^6 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

eled to answer the citations of the Court, until 
he reached Saugiis, eight or nine miles from his 
brethren at the Bay, whom he would avoid. 
Then striking off west for a while, into the un- 
known and unbroken woods, he finally directed 
his course due south. He says : " I was sorely 
tossed for one fourteen weeks in a bitter winter 
season, not knowing what bread or bed did 
mean." 

What a journey was that ! How often must 
he have turned back to avoid some impenetrable 
thicket, or to go round a treacherous swamp, or 
to find a practicable passage of a running stream ! 
How sorely he must have been pressed with 
hunger in the absence of all fruit, and without 
the possibility of the poor resort to roots ! If 
he had the means of bringing down the game 
with the heavy flint-lock gun of those days, 
(then just displacing the match-lock,) that of 
itself imposed a heavy burden. No doubt the 
Indians gave him friendly shelter, but how un- 
certain as well as unpleasant must have been 
his nightly resting places ! No wonder that he 
exclaimed in old age : '' I bear to this day in my 
body the effect of that winter's exposures." 

This midwinter's thrusting out of Roger 



Foot-prints of Roger Williains. 77 

Williams has been well rendered in poetry by 
an enthusiastic poet* of Rhode Island, in con- 
nection with the whole fancied story of his ban- 
ishment. He thus sings : 

*' So fortli he went — even like tlic clove 

Wliich earliest left the anj^el-guarded ark ; 

On wr.-iry jiiiiions hovered she above 

'I'lic v:ist of waters heaving wild and dark, 

Over waste realms of death, wliilst still she strove 

Some ]-)eak emergent from tho flood to mark, 

Where she might rest above the billows' sweep, 

And build a stormy home 'mid that umiuiet deep." 

Through storms, indeed, to build " a stormy 
home" was Williams journeying. lUit 

" Slill truly does liis course the magnet keep — 

No toils fatigue him, and no fears appal ; 

Oft turns he at the glimpse of swampy deep, 

Or thieket dense, or crag abrupt and tall, 

Or backward treads to shun the headlong steep. 

Or pass above the tumbling waterfall. . . . 

Across his path with antlers branching wide, 

The bounding deer oft from the thicket I)roke ; 

The timid partridge at his rapid stride 

On thundering wings the sheltering bush forsook. 

And the wild turkey foot and pinion plied. 

Or from her lofty boughs uncoulhly cried. . . . 

And then night's thickening shades began to fill 

His soul with doubt — for shelter he had none — 

And all the outstretched waste was clad with one 

* " Whatcheer ; or, Roger Williams in Banishment. By 
Job Durfee, L1>.D," 



^S Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

Vast mantle hoar. And he began to hear, 
At tunes, the fox's bark, and the fierce howl 
Of wolf, sometimes afar — sometimes so near 
That in the very glen they seemed to prowl 
Where now he, wearied, paused — and then his ear 
Started to note some shaggy monster's growl. 
That from his snow-clad, rocky den did peer, 
Shrunk with gaunt famine in that tempest drear, 
And scenting human blood — yea, and so nigh 
Thrice did our northern tiger seem to come, 
He thought he heard the fagots crackling by. 
And saw, through driven snow and twilight gloom, 
Peer from the thickets his fierce burning eye. 
Scanning his destined prey, and through the broom 
Thrice stealing, on his ears the whining cry 
Swelled by degrees above the tempest high." 



The six weeks of exposure in the wilderness 
ended about the first of March. He had reached 
the wigwam of his old friend Massasoit. While 
residing at Plymouth, Williams, it will be recol- 
lected, had often been the guest of this Chief. 
Williams had kept the acquaintance fresh and 
cordial during the intervening years by friendly 
messages, and to the Indian Chief, more wel- 
come presents. He could not, of course, have 
fores.een the value to himself of such a friend- 
ship. He had, undoubtedly, sought by it only 
the religious . welfare of the savages. Now it 
was in the power of Massasoit to grant him not 
only a home, but to aid him in securing a posi- 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 79 

tion of the widest influence for good. While 
resting at the royal head-quarters at Mount 
Hope, near the present town of Bristol, R. I., 
Williams obtained from him a grant of land 
now included in the town of Seekonk, in Mas- 
sachusetts, on the east bank of Seekonk river. 
True to his principles with regard to the Indian 
ownership of the land, he regarded the Sachem's 
deed as sufficient. This certainly was true in 
equity, unless the old Chief had before bar- 
gained it away to the Plymouth colony, who, in 
fact, now claimed that bank of the river as 
within their limits. 

He began at once to build a house — a cabin, 
no doubt, somewhat after the fashion of those 
of American pioneers. He cleared the ground, 
or sought cleared places, and planted Indian 
corn. The poet expresses this well : 

*' Long did this task Sire Williams' cares engage, 
'Twas labor strange to hands like his, I ween. 

That had far oftener turned the sacred page, 

Than hewed the trunk or delved the grassy green ; 

But toils like these gave honor to the sage ; 
The ax and spade in no one's hands are mean, 
And least of all in thine — Illustrious Pioneer ! " 

Some friends had joined him, though his wife 
and children remained at Salem. The planting 



So Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

time was now over ; the crops were green under 
the sun and showers of June. We can safely 
imagine that the *' Ilhistrious Pioneer " was 
beginning to feel that a quiet home had been 
found at last, where, to use his favorite expres- 
sion, "soul freedom" could be enjoyed, and 
where, re-united to his wife and children, he 
might worship God under his own vines. 

Such was his situation when he says : " I re- 
ceived a letter from my ancient friend Mr. 
Winslow, the Governor of Plymouth, professing 
his own and others' love and respect to me, yet 
lovingly advising me, since I was fallen into the 
edge of their bounds, and they were loath to 
displease the Bay, to remove to the other side 
of the water, and there, he said, I had the coun- 
tr}' free before me, and might be as free as 
themselves, and we should be loving neighbors 
together." 

This was hard, but kindly intended advice. 
There can be no doubt that Winslow and his 
associates in the Pilgrim colony sincerely felt 
all "the love and respect" for Williams which 
they professed. He seems to have at once 
acquiesced in the wisdom of the advice, and we 
only wonder that he had not thought, before 




ll¥,: '^ 



~'-||i«inl 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 83 

building and planting within the Plymouth 
colony, of the probable displeasure of the Bay. 
He must certainly have known, from a two 
years' residence in Plymouth, the extent of their 
claim. It may be he was not willing to believe, 
without this prompting, that the jealous watch- 
fulness of Massachusetts over his supposed 
heresies could extend to this far-away forest 
home. 

Without bitterness or complaint, Williams 
prepared immediately to abandon the cabin 
which his toil had erected, and the fields which 
his industry had sown and cultivated, and to 
seek another resting place. With five others 
he embarked in his canoe, and dropped down 
the river, narrowly watching the western bank 
for an inviting landing. On approaching a little 
cove near Tockwotten, now India Point, friendly 
voices saluted them, though they came from a 
group of natives. " What cheer, netop ! " they 
exclaimed, which was a salutation they had 
learned from the English, meaning, " How do 
you do, friend ! " They landed, but were more 
pleased with the welcome than the place. Re- 
turning to the canoe, they rounded India Point 
and Fox Point, and sailed up a beautiful sheet 



84 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

of water, skirted then by a dense forest, to a 
spot near the mouth of the Mosasuck river. A 
spring of pure water which still marks the place 
was no doubt one of its attractions. Here he 
commenced again to build, and to prepare for 
future planting. He gave to the place the name 
of Providence, as he says : " In grateful rememi- 
brance of God's merciful providence to me in 
my distress." He is well made to say : 

" Accept, O Lord, our thanks for mercies past ; 

Thou wast our cloud by day, and fire by night, 
Whilst yet we journeyed through the dreary vast ; 

Thou Canaan more than givest to our sight. 
Lord ! 'tis possessed, not seen from Pisgah's height. 

We deeply feel this high beneficence ; 
And ages far shall o'er our graves recite 

Of thy protecting grace their father's sense, 
And, when they name their home, proclaim Thy Providence ! " 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 85 



CHAPTER IX. 

A STATE PLANTED. 

T "X /"HEN Williams and his companions were 
' ^ about to make a home at Providence, he 
was careful to obtain permission from his Indian 
friends, Canonicus and Miantonomo. These 
Chiefs, the associated head of the Narragansetts, 
gave him also a tract of land extending from 
what is now the head of Providence Bay, south, 
along its western shore, to Pawtuxet river. It 
included what is now several towns. He was 
to use the banks of the rivers to their sources, 
and the meadows along their basins included 
within these limits, as pasture land for his cattle. 
It was but a verbal agreement at first, but so 
strong was Williams' hold upon their confidence 
and affection that these savage Chiefs never 
faltered in their engagement. Two years after- 
ward Williams put their promise into the form 
of a deed, which they signed with their marks. 
They say that they deed this land, " In consid- 
eration of the many kindnesses and services he 



86 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

hath continually done for us, both with our 
friends of Massachusetts, as also at Connecticut, 
and Apaum or Plymouth." These Indian pres- 
ents to Mr. Williams were after the historic 
manner of Indian presents : " You give me, and 
I give you." He found them very burdensome 
and costly. He let them have his "shallop and 
pinnance " whenever they desired ; transporting 
fifty of them at a time. He sometimes lodged 
fifty under his roof When he established a 
trading house near the old Chiefs head-quarters 
he allowed him to help himself to the goods — 
a permission more generous than wise, we should 
think. Of course, his Indian Majesty availed 
himself of the privilege, and voted his white 
brother a good fellow. When Canonicus lay on 
his dying bed he sent for Mr. Williams, and 
declared that it was his dying request to be 
buried " in Mr. Williams' cloth of free gift." 
This meant, we suppose, that he wished that bis 
grave apparel should be a suit of English 
clothes. 

Though this was a costly way to Williams in 
his poverty to get a foot-hold for the Whites in 
the Narragansett country, it was probably the 
only one. The old Chief was very jealous of 



Foot-prbits of Roger Williams. 87 

the English, and WilHams says : " It was not 
thousands nor tens of thousands of money 
could have bought of him an English entrance 
into this Bay." 

Besides the influence of these presents, Will- 
iams mentions other advantages which he had 
as a negotiator with the Indians, among which 
were these : " A constant, zealous desire to dive 
into -the natives' language. God was pleased 
to give me a painful, patient spirit to lodge with 
them in their filthy, smoky hole (even while I 
lived at Plymouth and Salem) to gain their 
tongue. I was known by all the Wampanoags 
and Narragansetts to be a public speaker at 
Plymouth and Salem, and therefore with them 
held as a Sachem ; I could debate with them in 
a great measure in their own language. Lastly, 
I had the favor and countenance of that 
noble soul, Mr. Winthrop, whom all Indians 
respected." 

Mr. Williams' first purpose was to go alone 
into this Indian country. He says : " My sole 
desire was to do the natives good, and to that 
end to learn their language, and therefore 
desired not to be troubled with English com- 
pany." But seeing "divers of his distressed 



S8 Foot-prints of Roger IVilliams. 

countrymen, distressed for conscience," " out of 
pity " he gave leave to several to accompany him. 

The demands of the Indians for presents, 
and the necessities of his removals, had caused 
Mr. Williams to sell his house and lands at Sa- 
lem. He built him a cabin, and in the mid- 
summer after his coming to Providence seems 
to have had his wife and two children with him. 
But his poverty was great. He had lost the 
avails of his spring planting by his compelled 
removal from Seekonk, and want was knocking 
at his door. This afforded occasion for a pleas- 
ing incident, in v/hich we see how good men 
rise above the alienating differences of opinions. 
Williams says : " It pleased the Father of spirits 
to touch many hearts dear to him with many 
relentings ; among which that great and pious 
soul, Mr. Winslow, melted, and kindly visited 
me at Providence, and put a piece of gold into 
the hands of my wife for our supply." 

In such circumstances, a just business resort 
would have been the sale of the lands he had 
obtained, at a fair price, to the new-comers, to 
whom his settlement was a place of refuge. He 
justly says that these lands " were mine own as 
truly as any man's coat upon his back." But 



Foot-prhits of Roger Williams. 89 

he gave them away with a lavish hand, not 
reserving to himself a foot of land " or an inch 
of voice " more than to his servants or stran- 
gers. No wonder that he had years afterward 
occasion to say, " I have been blamed for thus 
parting with my lands." It subjected himself 
and family to many annoyances. 

He began this liberal disposing of his grand 
landed estate only about eight months after it 
came into his hands. The memorandum, or 
informal deed, by which it was effected, runs to 
twelve persons, *' loving friends and neighbors," 
who are named. It conveyed to them equal 
rights and powers for the trifling sum of thirty 
pounds sterhng ! The "major part" of this 
company thus formed were to have power to 
admit others " into the same fellowship of vote." 
Mr. Williams' prodigal liberality further appears 
in the fact that the thirty pounds named in this 
deed was not paid — not a penny of it — by these 
twelve persons admitted to joint ownership and 
authority. Thirty shillings was demanded of 
persons afterward admitted, to form a common 
stock. Out of this Williams received his thirty 
pounds — a small part indeed of the cost of his 
gifts to the Indians. 



90 Foot-prints of Roger Williains. 

There was,, however, by an arrangement ap- 
pended to the above, some offset to this hard 
bargain, yet still leaving the original settler but 
a shadow of compensation. There was some 
qualified reservation of lands on the southern 
boundary of the claim, by which he received 
about eighteen pounds more. 

So far, then, as the twelve friends and neigh- 
bors were concerned, whom Williams admitted 
" out of pity," they suffering for the rights of 
conscience, the lands were " a loving gratuity." 
Thus it was, as he says, "not unknown to many 
witnesses in Plymouth, Salem, and Providence, 
that my time hath not been spent (though as 
much as any others whatsoever) altogether in 
spiritual labors and public exercises of the 
word ; but day and night, at home and abroad, 
on the land and water, at the hoe, at the oar, 
for bread!' 

The community thus started would need soon 
some form of government. Roger Williams 
drew up the following document as the keel of 
their ship of State : " We, whose names are 
here under-written, being desirous to inhabit 
the town of Providence, do promise to submit 
ourselves in active or passive obedience to all 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 91 

such orders or agreements as shall be made for 
the public good of the body in an orderly way, 
by the major consent of the present inhabitants, 
masters of families, incorporated together into 
a township, and such others as they shall admit 
unto the same, only in civil things!' 

The last clause, proclaiming liberty of con- 
science to all, evidenced what was to be the 
controlling spirit of the new body politic. It 
was inscribed on the keel, as it was to be upon 
the flag, of their noble ship. 

For a time, until the number had so increased 
as to require a greater division of labor in the 
government, "the masters of famihes" met 
monthly to exercise " in town meetings " the 
functions of law-makers, judges, and executive 
offices. A clerk and treasurer were chosen at 
each meeting. Offices were a burden, we sup- 
pose, and so they took turns in filling them, 
instead, as their neighbors of the Plymouth 
colony did in certain cases, of imposing a fine for 
non-acceptance. Two persons were appointed 
to serve through short terms to preside in their 
meetings, to see that order was preserved in the 
community, to settle disputes, and execute 
orders. 



92 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

This pure democracy lasted several years. 
We regret that we cannot treat our readers to 
the privilege of looking in upon this assembly 
of the entire sovereign people, resolved into a 
committee of the whole for governmental pur- 
poses. The debates were spicy, no doubt ! 
The responsibilities of the affairs of State thus 
generously divided among the mass would not 
oppress any individual. Great freedom in the 
proposal of measures, and in their discussion, 
was no doubt used, and often summary disposi- 
tion was made of them. But we cannot draw 
such pictures from the records, for either the 
transactions were meagerly kept where every- 
body was clerk in turn, or they were destroyed 
in the burning of the town by the Indians in 
after years. 

The first settlers planted their corn on old 
Indian fields, or on such clear lands as they 
found most convenient. But as they became 
more numerous the question of where to settle 
and how much land may be taken seems to 
have been brought before the people. They 
then laid out what are now North and South 
Main streets, on the east side of the river, and 
divided the land eastward into six-acre lots, of 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 93 

equal breadth. There were,, in the course of 
time, one hundred and two of these lots. Each 
proprietor had one of them on which he built 
his house. They were called " plantations ; " 
hence the name " Providence Plantations," 
which so long designated, in part, the colony. 

A nice little property one of these lots would 
now make in the goodly modem Providence ! 
We do not know what the rule of selection 
was, but probably the first who came w^as first 
served. That of Roger Williams included the 
place where he first landed and built his house. 

The policy of having homes thus near togeth- 
er was the same as that adopted in Plymouth 
and Salem, and was suggested by the necessity 
of combined defense against the Indians. But 
each proprietor was voted, in town meeting, out 
lots of upland and meadows. The meadows 
and higher land, for planting, could seldom be 
united in one farm. Hay was a great article 
in that day w-hen hay-seed was not in use, and 
the good mowing was carefully parceled in 
equal lots. 

While Williams was disposing of his great 
estate on the mainland, he, jointly with Gover- 
nor Winthrop, purchased of Canonicus the 



94 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

island of Chibachuweset, in the Xarragansett 
Bay ; they called it Prudence. Williams soon 
after bought tv\-o smaller islands adjacent, and 
called them Patience and HoDe. 






Foot-prints of Roger Williatns. 95 



CHAPTER X. 

FRIENDLY GREETINGS TO MASSACHUSETTS. 

T T 7" E expressed a regret, in the last chapter, 

' ' that the records of the town meetings 
had not been pre5er\'ed in sufficient fullness to 
enable us to know the doings and spirit of its 
monthly meetings. There is one item of its 
early records preser\"ed, which, of itself, is so 
unimportant that we might have passed it by 
but for a spicy incident, described elsewhere, 
which the fact recorded occasioned. The item 
is this, under date of May 21, 1637 : "It was 
agreed that Joshua Verin, upon a breach of a 
covenant for restraining of the libert}- of con- 
science, shall be withheld from the libert}' of 
voting until he shall declare the contrar}*.'' 

Governor Winthrop thus reports this Verin 
affair. The Governor gives it as an illustration 
of the difficulties arising from the nature of the 
Providence settlement, and the manner in which 
its people dealt with them : "At Pro\*idence also 
the devil was not idle. For whereas at their 



96 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

first coming thither Mr. WilHams and the rest 
did make an order that no man should be mo- 
lested for his conscience, now men's wives and 
children and servants, claiming liberty hereby 
to go to all religious meetings, though never so 
often, or though private, upon the week days ; 
and because one Verin refused to let his wife 
go to Mr. Williams' so often as she was called 
for, they required to have him censured. But 
there stood up one Arnold, a witty man of their 
company, and withstood it, telhng them that 
when he consented to that order he never in- 
tended it should extend to a breach of any or- 
dinance of God, such as the subjection of wives 
to their husbands, and he gave divers solid rea- 
sons against it. Then one Greene replied that 
if they should restrain their wives all the 
women of the country would cry out against 
them. Arnold answered him thus : Did you 
pretend to leave the Massachusetts because 
you would not offend God to please men, and 
would you now break an ordinance and com- 
mandment of God to please women } Some 
were of opinion that if Verin would not suffer 
his wife to have her liberty, the Church should 
dispose her to some other man who would use 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 97 

her better. Arnold told them that it was not 
the woman's desire to go so oft from home, but 
only Mr. Williams and others. In conclusion, 
when they would have censured Verin, Arnold 
told them that it was against their own order, 
for Verin did that he did out of conscience ; 
and their order was that no man should be cen- 
sured for his conscience." 

This is quite a curious affair as it thus stands. 
It was written under the date of December 13, 
1638, and we are surprised that Winthrop should 
have forgotten the following item of a letter* 
written to him by Mr. Williams the preceding 
May, the very month of the entry of the Verin 
case on the town records, and no doubt imme- 
diately after it. The case, it will be seen, does 
not, under Williams' pen, appear so funny as 
Arnold's wit or Mr. Winthrop's gossiping in- 
former made it : " Sir, we have been long afflicted 
by a young man, boisterous and desperate, 
Philip Verin's son, of Salem, who, as he has re- 
fused to receive the Word with us (for which 
we did not molest him) this twelve months, so, 
because he could not draw his wife, a srracious 
and modest woman, to. the same ungodliness 

* ** Winllirop Papers." Mass. His. Col. 4. Vol. vi, p. 245. 



98 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

with him, he hath trodden her under foot, tyran- 
nically and brutishly. She and we long bore 
this, though, with his furious blows, she went 
in danger of her life. At last, by a vote of the 
majority of us, he was discarded from our civil 
freedom. He will have justice, he clamors, 
at other courts. I wish he niight for a foul, 
slanderous, and brutish carriage, which God 
hath delivered him up unto. He will haul his 
wife with ropes to Salem, where she must needs 
be troubled and troublesome, as differences 
stand. She is willing to stay and live with 
him, or elsewhere, where she may not offend. 
I shall humbly request that this item be ac- 
cepted, and he noway countenanced, until, if 
need be, I further trouble you." 

This was not quite the last of young Verin's 
case. He left the town when he came under 
its censure, but in 1650 he wrote to its officials, 
claiming the land which they seem to have con- 
sidered forfeited by his absence. The town 
promised him his land if he would come and 
prove his claim. 

The personal relations of Roger Williams 
and the excellent Governor Winthrop were 
unfalteringly of the most Christian character. 



I 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 99 

notwithstanding their great differences on some 
matters of both opinion and conduct. In the 
same letter by Williams in which he speaks of 
the Verin annoyance, he congratulates Win- 
throp on his recovery from sickness. This 
prostration, which brought him " near to death," 
the Governor speaks of in his journal. Will- 
iams' peculiar style appears in it, as well as his 
excellent Christian spirit : 

* Sir, blessed be the Father of spirits, in 
whose hand our breath and ways are, that once 
more I may be bold to salute you, and con- 
gratulate your return from the brink of the 
pit of rottenness ! ' What is man that thou 
shouldest visit him and try him 1 ' (Job vii.) 
You are put off to this tempestuous sea again ; 
more storms await you. The good Lord repair 
our leaks, fresh up the gales of his blessed Spirit, 
steady our course by the compass of his own 
truth, rescue us from all our spiritual adversaries, 
not only men, but fiends of war, and assure us of 
our harbor at last, even the bosom of the Lord 
Jesus. 

" Sir, you have many an eye, I presume, lifted 
up to the hills of mercy for you. Mine might 
seem superfluous, yet privately and publicly you 



100 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

have not been forgotten, and I hope shall not 
while these eyes have sight." 

A pleasing postscript appears to one of Will- 
iams' letters to Winthrop soon after the banish- 
ment. It says, Mrs. Williams sends to Mrs. 
Winthrop, with respects, " a handful of chest- 
nuts," and promises " a larger basket " if she is 
fond of them. So the " handful " was a modest 
expression for a basketful, which love was ready 
to enlarge if the fruit was relished. The post- 
script was a little thing — little, like the balmy 
breath of spring which tones down the bitter 
frost of winter. May not the husbands have 
owed something of their kind temper toward 
each other, in the midst of much provocation to 
sourness, to the courtesies of their wives 1 

Among the business letters of Williams to 
Winthrop of this period there are frequent 
requests made to the Governor to use his good 
offices in securing from certain parties the pay- 
ment of debts due Williams. One of these * 
contains a clause touchingly significant of the 
humiliating straits to which poverty, imposed 
by his banishment, had driven the creditor. 
It declares that the debt in question was due 

* «« Winthrop Papers," page 212. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams, loi 

for his wife's and his own " best apparel," which 
had been sold to the debtor. 

The following letter to the Governor has the 
true ring. It is under the date of 1638. 

'' Sir, I hear of the innovations of your gov- 
ernment. The Lord of heaven be pleased to 
give you faithfulness and courage in his fear ! I 
fear not so much iron and steel as the cutting 
of our throats with golden knives. I mean that 
under the pleasing bait of executing justice to 
the eastward, and the enlargement of authority, 
beyond all question lies hid the hook to catch 
your invaluable liberties. Better an honorable 
death than a slave's life." * 

The correspondence of this period between 
Williams and Winthrop, though generally of a 
business character, sometimes dwelt upon re- 
ligious topics — topics, to be sure, which bore 
upon the question of his banishment. Winthrop 
in the following extracts from a letter, under 
the date of 1638, puts some questions to 
Williams. The questions, it will be seen, are 
squarely put, and the answers candidly given, 
though not always, it must be confessed, given 
in the directest manner. The good men gave 

* "Winthrop Papers," page 239. 



102 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

and took some good hits, and continued in love 
to each other. Wilhams says : 

"Your queries I welcome, my love forbidding 
me to surmise that a Pharisee, a Sadducee, or 
an Herodian wrote them ; but that your love 
and pity framed them as a jDhysician to the 
sick. . . . 

" Your first query then is this : 

" ' What have you gained by your new found 
practices } ' I confess niy gains, cast up in man's 
exchange, are loss of friends, esteem, main- 
tenance ; but what was gain in that respect I 
desire to count loss for the excellency of the 
knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. To your 
beloved selves and others of God's people yet 
asleep, this witness in the Lord's season, at 
your waking shall be prosperous, and the seed 
sown shall arise to the greater purity of God's 
kingdom and ordinances. 

" To myself through his grace my tribulation 
hath brought some consolation, and more evi- 
dence of his love. 

" Your second query is, ' Is your spirit as even 
as it was seven years ago } ' 

" I will not follow the fashion either in con- 
demning or commending myself You and I 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 103 

stand at one dreadful, dreadful tribunal ! yet 
what is past I desire to forget, and to press for- 
ward toward the mark of the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ. 

''And for the evenness of my spirit, I hope 
I more long to know and do his holy pleasure 
only, and to be ready not only to be banished, 
but to die in New England for the name of the 
Lord Jesus. 

" Toward yourselves I have hitherto begged 
of the Lord an even spirit, and hope ever shall, 
as first, reverently to esteem, and tenderly to 
respect the persons of many hundreds of you : 
secondly, to rejoice to spend and be spent in 
any service (according to my conscience) for 
your welfare ; thirdly, to rejoice to find out the 
least swerving in judgment or practice from the 
help of any, even the least of you ; lastly, to 
mourn daily, heavily, unceasingly, till the Lord 
look down from heaven, and bring all his pre- 
cious stones into one New Jerusalem. 

" Your third query is, ' Are you not grieved 
that you have grieved so many } ' 

"To which I say with Paul, I vehemently 
sorrow for the sorrow of any of Zion's daugh- 
ters, who should ever rejoice in her King ; yet 



104 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

I must (and O that I had not cause !) grieve be- 
cause so many of Zion's daughters see not and 
grieve not for their souls' defilements. ... 

" You thereupon propound a fourth, ' Do you 
think the Lord hath utterly forsaken us ? ' 

" I answer, Jehovah will not forsake his peo- 
ple for his great name's sake, (i Sam. 12.) That 
is, the fire of his love toward those whom once 
he loved is eternal, like himself; and thus, far 
be it from me to question his eternal love to | 
you. . . . 

" Sir, you request me to be free with you, and 
therefore blame me not if I answer your re- 
quest, desiring the like payment from your own 
dear hand at any time, in any thing. 

" And let me add that among all the people 
of God, wheresoever scattered about Babel's 
banks, either in Rome or England, your case is 
the worst by far, because while others of God's 
Israel tenderly respect such as desire to fear 
the Lord, your very judgment and conscience 
lead you to smite and beat your fellow-servants, 
and expel them your coasts. 

" Sir, your fifth query is : * From what spirit 
and to what end do you drive t ' 

" Concerning my spirit, as I said before, I 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 105 

could declaim against it. But whether the 
spirit of Christ Jesus, for whose visible kingdom 
and ordinances I witness, or the spirit of Anti- 
christ, against whom only I contest, do drive me, 
let the Father of spirits be pleased to search ; 
and you also, worthy sir, be pleased by the word 
to search. And I hope you will find that-, as 
you say you do, I also seek Jesus who was nailed 
to the cross." 




^ 



I06 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 



CHAPTER XL 

INDIAN NEIGH B O R S. 

OGER WILLIAMS had not turned his 
-*^^ steps toward the Narrao-ansett Bay to 
found a State. This lie expressly deelares. 
Grand as this ]:)urpose would have been, he 
sought an end even greater than this. It was 
the conversion of the Indians. We have al- 
ready seen that to this l\\\(\ he had, under cir- 
cumstances of great privation, studied tlieir 
language. His correspondence with them wlien 
he was at Salem shows that this was tlic bur- 
den of his desire. But for this we tliink he 
would have been willing for his brctlu'cn at the 
Bay to have shii)ped him, as they pui-posed, to 
England. 

Ect us glance, then, at these Indian neigh- 
bors who are, henceforth, to be his pc()])le. 

The MassacJiusetts, who dwelt chiefly about 
the bay of that name, seem not to have been 
a prominent tribe, though Williams, fi"om his ' 
contact with them at times, must have la- 



Foot-prints of Roger Williarns. 107 

bored considerably for them. Tlic Pokano- 
kets, who were included in the territory of the 
l^lyniouth colony, were more important, includ- 
in^i; some smaller tribes ; among these were 
the WaDipaiioags, the immediate tribe of Mas- 
sasoit and his famous son, Philip. The NaiTa- 
o-(ii//scils inhabited nearly all of the present State 
of Rhode Island, including the islands of the 
b;iy, IMock Island, and the east end of Long 
Island. The J^cquots, with whom the MoJiegans 
became blended, occu[)ied the whole of Con- 
necticut. Our story will have much to do with 
these tribes, as we follow Williams in his efforts 
to do them good. We shall see him at one 
time exerting his great influence for the pro- 
tection of his own countrymen, and, at others, 
turning asitle the terrible shafts of war from 
the Red Man. 

At a time not distant from the coming of the 
May Floivcr, the Narragansetts were the ruling 
tribe. They were among the tribes of eastern 
New England what Judah was among the tribes 
of Israel. They might well have inscribed a 
lion u[)on their banner, for at their roaring all 
the swarthy dwellers in the forest trembled. 
Tribute came to their treasury from the Merri- 



io8 Foot-pruits of Roger Williams. 

mac river, all along the coast of Massachusetts 
and Rhode Island, and even frotii portions of 
Long Island. How long this sway lasted, and 
exactly when it began to decline, we do not 
know. Their tradition runs as follows, which 
is quite as likely to be true as much that is 
written in grave volumes as history. In fact, 
it may be regarded as the received Narragansett 
history. Tashtapack, the ancestor of the old 
sachem who reigned at the time of the coming 
of the Pilgrims, " was a mighty man of valor" 
— the Alexander of his day. Like the conquer- 
ors of the old world, he overturned the king- 
doms about him, and built for himself an em- 
pire. Having done this, he surrounded himself 
with great splendor in his palace, called by the 
curious looking and sounding name Sachi)ji?ca- 
covnnock. He had one son and one daughter. 
He was, of course, very proud of them, and 
scorned to match them in marriage with any of 
his subjects. He looked about him through 
the courts of the neighboring countries, very 
much as kings do in like cases now, but he 
could see no prince or princess worthy, in his 
esteem, to marry into his family. So he did 
the foolish and unnatural thing of marrying 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 109 

his son and daughter to each other. Their 
sons were many, one of whom was Canonicus, 
who still reigned when Williams came to Provi- 
dence. He was a wise, jDcaceable sachem, 
though he once did a foolish thing which his 
ignorance might well excuse. He tried to 
scare the Pilgrims. He sent them a bundle of 
arrows tied up with a snake skin, which meant 
"We'll fight you." The Pilgrims sent the skin 
back full of powder, which said " We are not 
afraid." No harm was done, but Canonicus 
and his warriors were terribly scared when 
they received the powder. 

Canonicus, who, at the time of our story, 
was an old man, had associated in the govern- 
ment with him his nephew, the mild Miantono- 
mo. This nephew will come before us in stir- 
ring and tragic scenes. 

Just before the Pilgrims landed, a pestilence 
swept away many thousands of the Indians. 
Massasoit, who had ruled over ten tribes, and 
was independent of all, lost his people by this 
disease, and, in consequence, became tributary 
to Canonicus. His treaty with the Pilgrims 
was made wisely, with an eye to his own 
interest, for under their protection he qui- 



1 1 o Uoot-prints of Roger Williams. 

ctly withdrew from under the Narragansett 
rule. 

The Narragansetts had, on the coming of the 
Whites, lost their military character, though, as 
we have seen, still exercising large authority. 
They had, to a great extent, laid aside the bow 
and spear for the peaceful pursuits of agricul- 
ture and manufacture. They were the Indian 
Yankees. They set up the first mint known 
among the natives, from which they sent out 
money made of shells. They had superior 
skill in making implements out of stone, in 
building canoes, in manufacturing beads and 
ornamental belts, and various forms of earthen- 
ware. They had large tracts of land under 
cultivation, so that town was joined to town 
through a great distance. Their sachems were, 
of course, rich in corn, and the old historians 
speak of their occasional presents of a thousand 
bushels to a single friend ! 

Though thus peaceful, they could muster, it 
is said, for the war path, five thousand men. 

The general character of the Indian tribes is 
well known. They were warm friends, but bit- 
ter, implacable enemies. Their minds were 
very dark, of course, on the subject of religion, 



Foot-prints of /\Oi^rr Williauis. \\\ 

f 
and ("oinHMiuni;' llic liuc (jod. I.ikoall 1k':i11rmi, 

tlu'y Iraiiu'd \\w vifcs ol' tlu' while- iiirii iiiinh 

moil' icadily IIkiii \\w\v viiliirs. (iainl)liii<;- was 

a native vice, l)nt dinnkcnncss tlicy learned 

from the pale faces, and became, if possible, 

^leater ade])(s th;ni their teachers in this re- 

fNied ;irt ol miseiy. 

The most wonderful thin<j^ connected with 
the Indians was their lanj;uai;-e. We mi,t;ht 
expect this to be scanty and cramped in its 
ability to e.\|)ress varying;" shades of thou,L;ht. 
Hilt suih was not \\\v f;K"t. It was rt\i;ular, 
copious, rich in foiins, and wonderfully ilexible 
in combination and nice discrimination, it has 
l)een fa\'oral)ly compared by scholars to the 
ancii'ut (Iri'ck, in all ihe (jualities whicfi make 
a fn-st-class lan^ua<;e. 

The languages and dialects of the contincMit 
of Anu'rica have been c\stimated at 1,2 r.j, more 
tlian a third of the entire number of the world. 

\'el the native languages of North America 
have been reduced to lour classes only — the 
Karalit of the exlieme noith, the Moridian of 
the soulliei n Iroul iei' of the United vSlates. the 
Delaware of the east, and the lro(|uois ol tlu^ 
west. Of course, the dialects of each were 



112 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

many. Those of New England were a variety 
of the Delaware language. Roger Williams 
gave his special attention to the Narragansett 
tongue, in which he became more proficient, 
probably, than any white man of his genera- 
tion. He says that, '' With this I have entered 
into the secret of those countries wherever 
English dwell, about two hundred miles between 
the French and Dutch plantations. There is 
a mixture of this language north and south of 
my abode, about six hundred miles ; yet within 
two hundred miles aforesaid their dialects do 
exceedingly differ, yet not so but (within that 
compass) a man may, with this, help, converse 
with thousands of natives all over the country. 

An example of the power of inflection of In- 
dian languages is given in a word of forty-one 
letters of our alphabet, whose translation into 
English requires eighteen words. It is regu- 
larly formed according to fixed rules ! 

After this brief glance at the neighbors of 
Roger Williams, we return to follow his vary- 
ing experience while trying to discharge his 
duty both to them and his white brethren. 
With distinguished Indian chiefs his history 
will make us further acquainted. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 1 1 3 



A 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE WAR CLOUD. 

WAR cloud hung over all the New En- 
gland colonies when Roger Williams com- 
menced his settlement in Providence. The 
Pequots of Connecticut, a fierce people full of 
savage cruelty, had from the first looked with 
jealousy upon the coming of the Whites. But 
the Narragansctts, the ancient enemies of the 
Pequots, held them in check by their more 
friendly bearing toward the pale faces. In 
1634 the captain and all the crew, numbering 
ten men, of a vessel on the Connecticut river 
were murdered. The murderers fled to the 
Pequots, who gave them shelter, though it is not 
certain they were of that nation. This brought 
Massachusetts' messengers to their door de- 
manding satisfaction. With evident reluctance 
the Pequots paid the penalty imposed and made 
peace, but nursed their wrath and watched their 
opportunity. 

Thus the relations of these savages stood to 



114 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

the Whites in the summer of 1636, when Will- 
iams began his struggle for a new home. In 
July, John Oldham, and two English boys, and 
two Narragansett Indians, went on a trading 
voyage up the Connecticut. Oldham was a 
daring trader of doubtful character, and in bad 
repute with both Indians and Whites. On their 
return they touched at Block Island, where Old- 
ham was murdered. The murderers fled to the 
usual refuge in such cases, the camp of the 
Pequots. This time there were evident signs 
of complicity in the crime on the part of the 
Narragansetts. 

When the news of this murder reached Bos- 
ton their martial spirit was roused. Fortu- 
nately, messengers from Canonicus almost im- 
mediately followed the arrival of the news. 
They bore a letter from their trusted friend 
Roger Williams to Governor Vane, and were 
accompanied by the two Indians who were with 
Oldham. Soon after, the two boys were sent 
to their homes, and another letter from Mr. 
Williams assured the Governor that Miantono- 
mo had sent men to Connecticut, and recovered 
them and the property, and that he would 
avenge the death of Oldham. The faithful 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 1 1 5 

chief sachems thus cleared their skirts of this 
blood, and showed that if any of their depend- 
ent tribes had taken a part in the crime it was 
without their knowledge. 

So the blow from the Bay fell on the Pequots 
only. John Endicott was sent with ninety men 
in three small vessels, to Block Island. Land- 
ing on the island, he burnt the wigwams, staved 
the canoes, and then left for the Connecticut 
river. At Saybrook they received a reinforce- 
ment of twenty men, after which they sailed for 
the Pequot head-quarters at the mouth of the 
Thames river. Their Chief, Sassacus, was ab- 
sent. Endicott attacked and burned their town, 
killing some of its defenders. He then burned 
the forsaken wigwams on the opposite side of 
the river, broke up the canoes, and returned 
home without the loss of a man. Endicott was 
sharply criticised, many thinking it was an in- 
glorious war thus far on the part of the Whites. 
Certain it was that the Pequot blood was up. 
They scattered during the following winter, fire- 
brands and death through the English settle- 
ments of Connecticut. They sent embassadors 
to the Narragansetts, proposing an alliance for 
the extermination of the white-faced intruders. 



1 16 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

The Pequots hated the Narragansetts much, but 
the Enghsh more. It was the most perilous 
hour the New England colonies had yet seen. 
Sassacus appeared at the Council fire of the 
grave and cautious Canonicus. His eloquence 
was fired by the smart which Endicott had in- 
flicted upon his nation, and by a deep conviction 
that his people or the Whites must go down. 
He urged upon the Council the fact that the 
cause of the Indian tribes was a common cause, 
and that they must now fight for the soil their 
fathers had left them, for their own lives and 
for those of their wives and children, and for the 
graves of their ancestors. 

Such truthful arguments from a burning heart 
could but render doubtful, at least, the decision 
of the Narragansetts. At this crisis, Williams 
appeared among them. No other white man 
could have gone as safely. He was shielded by 
the love of the Narragansetts from the arrow 
and knife of the enraged Pequots. The author- 
ities at Boston, alarmed at the pitchy blackness 
which the war cloud had assumed, turned for 
aid to their banished brother. They knew they 
could confide in him in this their hour of need, 
and in this they paid him the highest compliment. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 1 1 7 

Williams' own pen well describes his nego- 
tiations and their results : " Upon letters from 
the Governor and Council at Boston requesting 
me to use my utmost and speediest endeavors, 
to break and hinder the league labored for by 
the Pequots and Mohegans against the English, 
the Lord helped me immediately to put my life 
into my hand, and scarce acquainted my wife, to 
ship myself alone in a poor canoe, and to cut 
through a stormy wind with great seas, every 
minute in hazard of life, to the Sachem's house. 
Three days and nights my business forced me 
to lodge and mix with the bloody Pequot em- 
bassadors, whose hands and arms methousfht 
reeked with the blood of my countrymen, mur- 
dered and massacred by them on Connecticut 
river, and from whom I could nightly look for 
their bloody knives at my own throat also. God 
wondrously preserved me, and helped me to 
break to pieces the Pequots' negotiations and 
design, and to make and finish by many 
travels and changes the English league with 
the Narragansetts and Mohegans against the 
Pequots." 

In consequence of these negotiations by 
Williams, Governor Vane, of Massachusetts, 



Ii8 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

invited Narragansett embassadors to Boston to 
officially arrange the treaty. In response to 
this call the junior Chief, Miantonomo, with 
two sons of Canonicus, one other Sachem, and 
twenty attendants, went on the 21st of October, 
1636, to Boston. They were received with the 
deference due to "a high contracting party," 
with military escorts and salutes, and when 
the treaty was completed they were dismissed 
with the same honors. 

Through a significant incident, Roger Will- 
iams came in for further service and honor be- 
fore the consummation of this important busi- 
ness. Because the Indians could not perfectly 
understand the terms of the treaty, it was sent 
to him to interpret it to them. This showed 
the confidence of all parties in him, and the 
honest intentions of the Boston officials toward 
the Indians. The treaty was one of alliance, 
offensive and defensive, against the Pequots. 
The Pequots, though thus abandoned even by 
the Mohegans, and left single-handed in the 
fight, resolved, with more bravery than discre- 
tion, to abide the result of war. The war tem- 
pest was upon the colonies. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 119 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE WAR TEMPEST. 

T T THEN, some months after this treaty was 
^ ' completed, the Boston authorities were 
intending an attack on the Pequots, WilHams 
went immediately to the camp of Canonicus. 
He informed him what the intentions and prep- 
arations of his white allies were. He found 
the usually placid Chief morose and distant. 
Some intermeddling " ill-wilier " had been whis- 
pering frightful stories in his ears. He had 
been told that the English had been concerting 
to send the plague among the Indians, and thus 
in a short and speedy way to get rid of such 
troublesome neighbors, and save all bloody and 
expensive wars ! " The plot includes even me," 
growled the poor old man ; and the most bitter 
part of the whole story was that his trusted 
friend Williams was consenting to the proposed 
bloody tragedy ! No wonder that Williams saw 
cause for "bestirring" himself He remained 

long in the wigwam of Canonicus, pointing out 
8 



120 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

to him the impossibiUty of the alleged scheme, 
and convincing him of the great wrong that 
the story did him and his white brethren. 
" Through the mercy of God," he says, " I 
sweetened his spirit, -and convicted him that 
the plague and other sicknesses are in the hands 
of the one God." 

Miantonomo was managed by Williams with 
even greater ease and success. He kept his 
barbarous court at one time in his house. He 
thus secured his confidence and good-will in the 
interests of the English. Taking the advantage 
of this confidence, he says he *' fished with in- 
dustry for instructions from them as to how 
the Whites could best fight the Red Men." It 
must be recollected that what is known so welll 
now as the Indian method of fighting was un- 
known to the colonists then. This information, , 
which must have been of great value, Williams 
dispatched at once to Boston to his friend Win- 
throp. The suggestions were in substance thati 
they must strike the Pequots suddenly and then 
feign a retreat, and then, when they were throwm 
off their guard, rush down upon them ; and this 
must be done not two or three days and then 
off, but for three weeks or a month. They said 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 121 

that the Pequots would be on the look-out for 
the English vessels on their coast, and when one 
appeared they would all flee — old people, women 
and children, as well as warriors — to a swamp in 
the rear of their settlement, two or three miles 
from the shore. This swamp was a great and 
marvelous one, called Ohomowauke — ^that is, 
owl's nest. This "owl's nest" was a refuge 
from which the Pequots expected to rush out 
upon the white foe if they would consent to be 
surprised. But the Narragansetts counseled 
the Boston men not to allow Indian " surprise 
parties " to visit them, they being less agree- 
able than those of the same name in modern 
times. But they advised that these surprises 
be given rather than received, which was gen- 
erous, and that the time be in the still watches 
of the night ; that the manner be with ambush 
men to cut off the flight to the swamp, and that 
the things carried be powder and shot and 
burning fire-brands ! All this advice Canoni- 
cus and his chiefs passed along through Will- 
iams to Boston, with much more of the same 
sort. But they modestly suggested, in a post- 
script to Williams' letter, that commodities of a 
wholly diflerent sort would best please the Nar- 



122 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

ragansetts ; in fact, ''If any things be sent 
to the princes," says Williams, "I find that 
Canonicus would gladly accept of a box of eight 
or ten pounds of sugar ; indeed, he told me he 
would thank Mr. Governor for a box full." j 
There, that was sensible. A box full of sugar \ 
in one's lock-up is twice as good as a flaming |: 
torch to one's roof at midnight, accompanied by | 
the smell of "villainous saltpeter." i 

The Pequots soon convinced all concerned r 
that they had not been consulted in the nice 
little arrangement which had been made through 
Mr. Williams. They commenced the campaign 
in Connecticut by cutting off the men in the 
fields, and the women and the children in their 
homes. They put some to cruel tortures. The 
tomahawk was a coming invention, and the !j 
bloody scalping-knife was a weapon whose use 
was soon to be learned from the higher civiliza- 
tion of the French on the north-eastern fron- 
tier. As it was, the Pequots did their murder- 
ous war-work quite well for savages. They 
gave the fort at the mouth of the Connecticut 
a surprise party. They gave straggling white 
boat clubs their emphatic salutations. They 
made a massacre at Wethersfield a well-remem- 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 123 

bered event; and the capture of two white girls 
at another time, after the murder of their 
friends, they made the pathetic theme of many 
a fireside story. In fact, the Pequots were 
about. Connecticut, whose three httle towns, 
Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor, had been 
organized only about a year, mustering in all 
considerably less than two hundred men, was 
soon in the field with her forces. Massachusetts 
prepared to launch, like a thunderbolt, upon 
the foe her mighty army of one hundred and 
twenty men ! Think of the Bay State in her 
infancy, ye mighty warriors of the late Rebel- 
lion, to whom five thousand soldiers were a 
skirmishing party ! 

General Stoughton, ^with the Bay forces, 
marched toward the front by the way of Provi- 
dence. Mr. Williams entertained him at his 
house, and says : " I used my utmost care that 
all his officers and soldiers should be well ac- 
commodated among us." He accompanied the 
troops to the country of their Narragansett al- 
lies, and by his influence established a mutual 
confidence between the Red and White warriors. 
He then returned to Providence, and acted 
through the war as the valued and almost indis- 



1 24 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

pensable medium of communication between 
Massachusetts and her arm^y and the Indians. 

Connecticut sent Captain John Mason to the 
scene of conflict with ninety men, attended by 
Uncas, chief of the Mohegans, with sixty of his 
warriors. It is said that the Pequo'ts could 
muster nearly a thousand fighting men. They 
had two fortified villages, one on the Mystic 
river, a small stream running into the eastern 
part of Long Island Sound. The other, a 
short distance from it, was the head-quarters of 
Sassacus, the Pequot leader-in-chief 

Captain Mason marched to Saybrook, at- the 
mouth of the Connecticut, where the Mohegans 
performed some valiant deeds in killing a few 
of the enemy, thus demonstrating their fidelity 
to the Whites, and proving, to themselves at 
least, their amazing prowess. 

At Saybrook, Mason, being re-inforced by 
Captain Underbill, who had been sent from 
Massachusetts with twenty men, took the most 
of his troops and sailed for Narragansett Bay, 
intending to surprise the Pequots by a land at- 
tack in their rear. They reached a harbor on 
Saturday, and spent the Sabbath on shipboard 
in religious exercises. Their Chaplain, the Rev. 



Foot-prints of Roger Willimns. 125 

Mr. Stone, who was both devout and brave, led 
their devotions. The two following days they 
rode out at anchor a terrific storm, which was 
a poor preparation for a two days' weary march 
across an unbroken country. They were ac- 
companied by a frightened force of the warriors 
of Canonicus, sixty trembling Mohegans, and 
a straggling band of Niantics. On Thursday 
night they encamped near Fort Mystic. The 
weary Englishmen slept soundly. When, long 
before day, Mason awakened them, they paused, 
before rushing to the deadly conflict, for a sea- 
son of prayer under the lead of the chaplain. 
- The Pequot fort was a circular area of an 
acre or two, inclosed by trunks of trees, twelve 
feet high, set in the ground. They were too 
near together to admit entrance, and wide 
enough apart for the arrow shots of the Indian 
defenders. Within were seventy wigwams. The 
four hundred occupants of the fort spent that 
fatal night in carousals. They had seen from 
the headlands the vessels of Mason and Under- 
bill sail away eastward. No doubt they in- 
dulged in merry jeers at the expense of the 
"woman-hearted" English, whom they fondly 
dreamed were scudding away home. The two 



1. .' 



1 26 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

entrances, on opposite sides, were well forti- 
fied. Through these Mason and Underhill, 
each with half the English forces, were to push 
forward to the center area. Most of the Indian 
allies had taken counsel of their fears, and 
melted away. The remaining faithful ones 
were stationed around the fort to cut off any 
attempting to escape. 

The calm bright moon, whose silver rays 
have been shed upon so many bloody scenes, 
lighted the approach to the sallyport. When 
Mason was within a few feet a dog barked, and 
aroused the unfaithful sentinels. The shout of 
^^ Owamix ! Ozvaiiux !'' ran through the camp, 
— " Englishmen ! Englishmen ! " No surprised 
village of White men could be thrown into 
greater consternation at the terrific Indian war- 
whoop than were the Mystic fort revelers at 
this moment. Mason, with sixteen men, sprang 
forward at the instant, and forced the entrance. 
Underhill had been equally successful on the 
opposite side. The inmates, like emmets on a 
burning log, ran in terror in every direction. 
But whichever way they turned was death. 
Broadsword and musket were too slow in their 
work of destruction. Mason save the thrillinof 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 127 

order, " Fire the wigwams." Flaming brands 
were hurled at the matting and thatched roofs. 
A north-east wind was blowing, and the flames 
spread like our prairie fires. Women and chil- 
dren, alike with the strong warriors, perished 
on that terrible night. Some, climbing the 
parapets, were shot down. Others, tailing to 
break through the English lines, turned with 
frenzied desperation and threw themselves into 
the not less merciful flames. A few rushed 
upon the invaders, and died with heroic bravery. 
Those, with few exceptions, who considered 
themselves fortunate in escaping beyond the 
burning fort, were shot down by the co-oper- 
ating Indians, who were brave now in the pres- 
ence of a defeated and terror-stricken foe. 

The number of Indians who perished is vari- 
ously stated at from four to seven hundred. 
" Not above five escaped out of our hands," 
says Captain Underhill. 

Captain Mason had a narrow escape. An 
Indian quite near him leveled his arrow and 
drew the string with a strong hand, to send it 
through him. The captain's orderly sprang 
to the side of the savage, and cut the bow- 
string. 



128 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

The English lost only two killed, but a quar- 
ter of their force was wounded. 

The action lasted but about an hour. A na- 
tion, once proud and defiant, and ruling over 
many others, perished in that hour, for the star 
of the Pequots had set forever. How terrible 
is war ! How desolating are its visitations, and 
how unlike those of the Prince of Peace ! 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 1 29 



- CHAPTER XIV. 

AFTER THE STORM. 

'' I ^IIE scenes after the sweep of a tornado, 
^ if not so terrific as at the moment of its 
activity, are often more appalhng. Prostrate 
trees, demoHshed houses, mangled corpses, and 
homeless and agonized men and women, are 
some of the features of the darkly-shaded pict- 
ure presented. 

It was thus after the war tempest. Mason 
had lost by death only two men, but half of 
his number were bleeding and helpless. He 
marched from the smoldering ruins of the 
Pequot fort toward the mouth of the Pequot 
river, (now the Thames,) where he had arranged 
to meet his vessels. The weather was excess- 
ively hot, and the exhausted men, burdened 
with their wounded companions, dragged 
through the impeded forest pathway with slow 
footsteps. Their provisions were nearly ex- 
hausted, so that hunger was added to weariness. 
There had been a great scarcity of all sorts of 



1 30 Foot-piints of Roger Williams. 

provisions among their families at home. So 
the soldiers sadly mourned not only a scarcity 
of bread, but of rum ! They say, " We had 
but one pint of strong liquors among us in our 
whole march ! " We are persuaded it was a 
pint too much. But they did not think so, for, 
having drank that up, we presume in carefully 
divided portions, they passed the bottle round 
to be smelled of! They declare, ''The very 
smelling to the bottle would presently recover 
such as fainted away." 

Nor was this want of bread all ; their ammu- 
nition was nearly expended, and the other for- 
tified place of the Pequots lay only a little west 
of their hne of march. As the Whites plodded 
along under these disheartening circumstances, 
they saw approaching them three hundred Pe- 
quots from this fort. They had heard of the 
fate of their countrymen in the assault of the 
night, and they were raving with revenge. 
Mason, who seemed never at loss in emergen- 
cies, hired his Indian allies to carry his wound- 
ed, inspirited his companions, and presented a 
bold front. The Pequots, fearing the Whites, 
turned upon a detachment of fifty of his Nar- 
ragansett helpers. True to his friends, Mason 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 131 

generously detached Underbill, who succeeded 
in rescuing them and bringing them back. At 
length Mason reached an eminence which over- 
looked the harbor, and his eyes were gladdened 
by a sight of his vessels just coming to anchor. 
The friends on the land and sea gave immedi- 
ate signals of recognition. Thanks were at 
once rendered to God for his preserving care. 
That night the exhausted conquerors rested 
safely on board their vessels. They found 
there Captain Patrick, from Massachusetts, 
with forty fresh men. They had arrived in the 
Narragansett Bay too late to join Mason, and 
so came round in his vessels. 

Underbill took the wounded and sailed for 
the Connecticut river, while Mason undertook 
to complete his work of destruction on the 
land. He sent detachments to protect the 
towns, and, with the rest of his little army, 
scoured the country, and arrived at the fort at 
Saybrook toward the last of the week. He 
was received by its commander with " many 
big guns," and the warriors kept their Sabbath 
with psalms, thanksgiving, and prayer. 

The remnant of the doomed Pequots col- 
lected in their remaining fort, of which we have 



132 Foot-piints of Roger Willimns. 

spoken. A month's lull in the tempest which 
was sweeping them away gave them time to 
rally their fainting spirits. They entertained, 
in stormy debate, the question whether to fall 
upon the English or upon the Narragansetts, or 
to seek in flight a hiding-place farther west. 
Burning their wigwams and supplies, and gath- 
ering together their little ones and old people, 
they prepared to turn their backs on the homes 
of their childhood, their hunting and fishing 
grounds, and the graves of their fathers, and 
seek a home toward the setting sun. They had 
proceeded but a short distance, reaching a spot 
a little west of where New Haven now stands, 
when Captain Stoughton arrived at the mouth 
of the Pequot river, and landed one hundred 
and twenty Massachusetts men. Here he 
joined Mason, who had forty men, and the com- 
bined force started in pursuit. They found the 
Pequots in a spot which was surrounded by 
quagmires, rendering approach to it difficult 
and dangerous. The English paused, sent a 
flag of truce, and asked for the surrender of the 
old men, women, and children, as they were 
" loath to destroy them." This was granted, 
and was merciful on the part of the assailants 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 133 

and wise on the part of the Indians. The 
morning which followed was foggy. Taking 
advantage of this, the warriors made a sudden 
attack on Mason's line, and seventy of them 
broke through and escaped. After this brief 
struggle Mason's conquest was easy, though 
for the first time in the English encounters 
with the Indians they had to face a few muskets. 
One hundred and eighty prisoners were taken, 
besides those surrendered in the parley. 

The war was virtually closed. Indeed, the 
Mystic fort fight had decided the issue. Sas- 
sacus, the Pequot Chief, no mean foe, seeing his 
nation ruined, fled, with a few of his men, to 
the brutal Mohawks on the Hudson river, by 
whom he was murdered. The scattered rem- 
nants of his people were hunted from their 
hiding-places as pioneer settlers hunt beasts of 
prey. The other Indian tribes seemed to owe 
them a grudge, and every-where devoured them, 
as wolves are said to devour the disabled mem- 
bers of their pack. They continued for some 
time to bring Pequot heads or hands as tro- 
phies to Boston. Eight hundred had been 
slain in the war, and some delivered themselves 
up at Hartford on condition that their lives 



134 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

should be spared. The miserable remnant of 
the extinguished nation were divided out as 
slaves among their conquerors, both Indian and 
English. 

Thus was annihilated the first of the long 
line of Indian tribes which have passed away 
before the more powerful white man, leaving 
the solemn question of responsibility of what 
was done for the discussion of after generations, 
and for settlement at God's righteous bar. The 
savage was animated by the thought that he 
was fighting for the territory inherited from his 
fathers or acquired by his bravery. The English 
were inspired by a dread of the midnight mur- 
derer among their wives and children. The Re- 
sult of the contest brought a forty-years' peace 
to all the colonies. 

. After the swamp fight Stoughton returned to 
Massachusetts, having lost one man only. A 
day of thanksgiving was observed throughout 
New England. In Boston a sermon was 
preached, after which the returned heroes of 
war were feasted. The little army of Connect- 
icut, dispersed over the plantations, hung their 
muskets, with their inseparable powder-horns, 
in some conspicuous place in the large kitchen. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 135 

and on winter evenings repeated to willing ears 
the story of the Pequot war. 

We have seen the part which Roger Williams 
took in this conflict. He was one of the ac- 
knowledged saviors of the colonists. His wis- 
dom foresaw the evil, and aided his brethren in 
hiding themselves. His services at home were 
as positively useful, if not as greatly so, as any 
military leader's in the field. His friend Win- 
throp, in Boston, saw this, and generously 
stepped forward with the proposal of his recall 
from banishment as an acknowledgment for his 
services. Other influential men sympathized 
with him. But the stern consistency of the 
rulers prevailed. They had not banished him 
out of dislike to his person, but out of hatred and 
fear of his doctrines. They might love his per- 
son more now, but they did not hate his opinions 
less. Nor had Williams abated any of his convic- 
tions or persistency in the direction of "soul 
liberty." So it was well for them to live apart, 
however wrong was the cause of that separation. 

It happened with our fathers as it has with 
their children, that war left its dreadful scars. 
The smoke of the battle had scarcely blown 
away before a serious jealousy sprung up be- 



136 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

tween the Boston authorities and their Indian 
alHes. The reader will not be surprised that 
the principal cause was the Pequot slaves which 
had been divided among the victors. Yotaash, 
a brother of Miantonomo, was sent to Boston to 
represent the Narragansetts' view of the con- 
tention. He returned with a letter to the Chiefs 
containing complaints and threatenings. As in 
all such cases, Williams came in as the trusted 
peace-maker. He accompanied Yotaash to the 
Narragansett head-quarters. The council fire 
was lighted, and the *'big talk" commenced. 
Williams interpreted the governor's letter, faith- 
fully rendering grievances and threats, between 
the several clauses of which no doubt the Indi- 
ans put in many an " umph ! " Williams, when 
the reading had closed, held up to them the 
treaty, and took at the same time a straw, and 
broke it in two or three pieces, signifying to 
them that they had thus broken it. Canonicus 
answered that Mr. Governor would see they 
were honest and faithful when he understood 
their answer. And still further, he insisted, 
though he didn't like to . contend with his 
friends, that the English had broken the treaty 
on their part since the war. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 137 

Then followed the statements of the particu- 
lar cases of grievance on each side, and the re- 
plies, Williams urging the English view. The 
statements are greatly confused in Mr. Williams' 
letter, but it seemed to be in substance this : 
Some Indian women belonging to the Massa- 
chusetts people had escaped to the Narragan- 
sett country. It was a genuine case — perhaps 
the first on the continent — of runaway slaves. 
Canonicus said he had never seen any, but hear- 
ing of some " in his parts, bade carry them back 
to Mr. Governor." Miantonomo said that he 
had heard of six only, four of whom were 
brought before him, at which he was angry, and 
ordered " a rendition " (as we should say) 
through Mr. WiUiams, to whom he bid his serv- 
ants carry them. The servants seemed reluc- 
tant to do the dirty business, and, after having 
searched for the other two runaways, returned 
answer that the %omen were lame and could 
not travel. This statement Williams acknowl- 
edges had been sent to him, as averred in the 
Council, accompanied with a request to send 
men to bring away the fugitives. Williams seems 
to have thought that this was a dodge, as most 
likely it was, since we know that runaway slave 



138 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

cases did in later years breed dodges. So Will- 
iams returned answer that he had no men to 
send, and that the Indian sheriffs must do the 
business. It would seem that at the time of the 
sitting of this Council the said runaways had 
not been returned, which no doubt was both a 
grievance to the Whites, and a cause of one of 
the "■ threats." When pressed to know why 
this had not been done, Miantonomo called 
Williams' attention to a fact which he well 
knew, that the time since the demand had been 
passed by the Indians "in strange solemnities, 
in which the Chiefs ate nothing by day and the 
whole country feasted by night," in honor of the 
late victories. " But now," says the plausible 
Sachem, " I will have the country searched for 
them. I do not want the squaw runaways." 

Williams promptly replied that he had sent 
over to beg one. But the wide-awake Sachem 
was not floored. Either the facts in the case 
were favorable, or his inventive wit was equal to 
the occasion. He replied that the Pequot slave 
whom he desired was a daughter of a deceased 
friend who had once shown him a great favor, 
and that he wished to obtain and liberate the 
daughter for the father's sake. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 139 

Williams next, in behalf of his Boston friends, 
charged the Narragansetts with forsaking the 
English in the war, and leaving them without a 
guide. Miantonomo replied that many hun- 
dreds of them had stuck to the English in life 
and death, by which Uncas and the Mohegans 
were kept from turning against them as he 
knew they wanted to do and might now. He 
further cited a case in which two of his men 
were faithful guides. 

Having thus repelled the accusations of his 
white friends, Miantonomo turns upon them with 
the following case : His brother, Yotaash, had 
triumphed over the Pequots in a big skirmish 
and taken twenty men, among whom was a great 
Sachem, accompanied by sixty squaws. They 
had killed three men in the fight. The prison- 
ers they bound, watching them all night, and 
delivering them to the English in the morning. 
While they yet remained in the custody of the 
Whites, Miantonomo came up with his forces, 
and was very proud, of course, of his brother's 
success. He at once hastened to the house to 
sec the big captive Chief. " But," he exclaimed, 
" eiuse wetompatimucks ! did ever friend deal 
so with friend .? " He was thrust at with a 



140 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

pike, and pushed rudely away. "What," ex- 
claimed the indignant Chief, " if we had dealt 
so with Mr. Governor } " Mr. Williams urged 
that he must have been unknown to the guards. 
But the injured chieftain would not admit the 
apology, declaring that the insult was so great 
that his men desired to be gone. 

Williams, in closing his narrative of the 
Council, says to Mr. Winthrop, " I dare not 
stir coals ! " He affirms that he knew that some 
Whites had greatly injured the Indians, who in 
their ignorance attributed the wrong to all the 
English. He speaks a word of caution to both 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, and promises 
further mediation. 

One can but see the kind hand of Providence 
in placing Williams between the colonists and 
the Indians. Many lives must thereby have 
been saved. In view of the irritation of both 
parties, he exclaims, " Blessed be the Lord that 
things are no worse ! " 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 141 



CHAPTER XV. 

A BREEZE FROM ANOTHER QUARTER. 

A T the close of the war with the Pequots 
-^^^ Roger Wilhams found his position at 
Providence one of increasing responsibiUty and 
interest. This was so not only in regard to the 
relation of the colonists to the Indians, but in 
reference to the relation of the colonists to 
each other. He had purposed, as we have seen, 
to shut himself up in the wilderness to win to 
Christ the Red Men. The providence of God 
was setting his light on a hill to be seen of all 
men. New settlements began to be formed 
about him, and his own rapidly expanded. He 
was unavoidably drawn into social, religious, 
-^ political, and commercial relations to the new- 
comers, and we must follow his history a while 
in this connection. 

We shall not understand the conduct and 
position of Williams unless we know somewhat, 
at least, about the character of the new set- 
tlers, and the immediate occasion of their 



142 Foot-prints of Roq-cr Williams. 

coming into his rc,L^ion. T.ct us, tlicn, glance 
at these topics. 

While Massachusetts was threatened with 
Iiulian com])iii;i,tions against her, and during 
the entire conflict with the I\j(|nf)ts, she was 
fighting a foe more to be dreaded. This foe 
was internal dissension. Her social .aiid jjolit- 
ical institutions, not yet cf)nsoliflated by time 
nor knit together by the growing wisdom of 
long experience, were shaken by it to their 
foundations. 'J he story is a long and comjjli- 
cated one. It has Ijcen told fjften, .anrl <i.lvv;i,ys, 
of course, with some shadings by the writers' 
own ])oint of r;bservation. We shall state it 
only so far as is necessary to the clear imder- 
standing of our narrative, without ex])ecting to 
do it <uiy better or more candidly than others 
have done. 

About the time that Willirmis returned to 
Salem from Jdymr^uth large iHn"id)t;rs of emi- 
grants landed at l>oston. They brought news 
of plots against the liberties of the colony. 
King Charles was riding without a Parliament. 
]kit this was n(jt all, nor the worst fact concern- 
ing his government. liisho]) Laud, of wliom a 
distinguished fjiglish critic has said that "He: 



Foo f -prints of Roger Williams. 143 

was II1C most worthy of llic contoinpl of the 
nation of any person in Hritisli history," was 
made viitual [)riniate. lie neither carefnlly 
stucUecl equity in the ends he sought, nor de- 
cency in tlie means of reaching them. These 
new emigrants brouglit well-attested grounds 
I of l)elier that l^ishop Laud and his friends in- 
tended to annihilate the colony charter — in fact, 
that of the Tlymouth people too — parcel out the 
lands among themselves, and establish tliem- 
selves in the New World, monarchs of all they 
surveyed. They would, of course, seek some 
])retense for doing this, and Ilourish it before the 
woild in pious phraseology. And it was not 
difficult, of course, to fuul pretenses, for the 
wolves which cpiarrel with the lambs are never 
at a loss ft)r reasons. 

Such was the evil news iVom abroad. lUit 
some writers thiidv, and most ol the Boston 
rulers were led to thiid<, that one of these emi- 
grant vessels ol the lall ol if)34 bi'ought some- 
thing worse than the news of the j)lottings of 
the Archbishop. It brought Mrs. Ann Hutch- 
inson. She seems to have been a woman of 
strong will, much culture, great Ihicncy of 
s[)cech, abundant conlidence, and keen logical 



144 Foot-p7dnts of Roger Williams. 

powers. She added to these very emphatic 
professions of interest in the care of her own, 
and of others' spiritual interest. We may not 
say that it was not a sincere and genuine inter- 
est, because its results were so disastrous. Mrs. 
Hutchinson had on the voyage been encoun- 
tered in debate by an emigrant minister, who 
on his arrival settled at Charlestown. He felt, 
as all who crossed a lance with her were made 
to feel, the thrusts of her sharp if not weighty 
logic. When she applied to the Boston Church 
for admission this minister came forward, ex- 
posed her heresies, and opposes her admission. 
But Mrs. Hutchinson was full of kindness of 
heart and good works, especially to those of her 
own sex who were sick. She soon made her 
way into the hearts of the people and into the 
Church. 

One of the ministers of the Boston Church 
at this time was the eminent John Cotton, who 
came from Boston, England, in compliment to 
whom the New England metropolis was called 
Boston. Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson had lived 
on their own ample estate near the English 
Boston, and sat under Cotton's preaching. It 
was for love of his ministry that they had fol- 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 145 

lowed him, with her brother-in-law, the Rev. 
John Wheelwright, to America. 

Mrs. Hutchinson found on her arrival a prac- 
tice among the brethren of the Church of hold- 
ing meetings among themselves for the purpose 
of repeating and discussing the sermons of their 
ministers, Wilson and Cotton, or of whoever 
might have the previous Sunday occupied the 
pulpit. What more proper, then, than that the 
sisters should do the same thing.? That Mrs. 
Hutchinson should immediately become the 
champion of such a meeting, and that it should 
become the more popular assembly of the two, 
was a matter of course. At times it met twice a 
week, and was attended by nearly a hundred 
women, among whom were some of the most 
prominent matrons of the town. She dealt out 
her criticism upon the sermons with an unsparing 
hand. Cotton and her brother, Wheelwrifrht, 
came out of her ordeal unscathed. In fact, she 
pronounced their doctrine the pure gold of truth. 
TJicy were " under a covenant of grace." The 
most of the other ministers of the colony were 
only "so so," or downright heretics, and "under 
a covenant of works." 

But Mrs. Hutchinson did not content herself 



146 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

with holding up to her assembled sisterhood 
(we doubt not many a man crept slyly in) the 
light of the pastors ; she had a special light of 
her own to display. The more she pondered 
upon her own inward spiritual illumination, and 
the more she held it up to others, the more 
wonderful it seemed, until it grew in her esti- 
mation to a prophetic inspiration. But before 
her experience had reached this point of con- 
summation her opinions had made great con- 
quests in the seething colony. Let us look a 
moment at these conquests. 

The Governor, when these contentions raged 
the fiercest, was Henry Vane. He was only 
twenty-four years of age, and had been in the 
country but a few months when he was elected 
over the head of such tried worth and ability as 
Winthrop. But Vane was the son of a " privy 
counselor," a scion of an old and great family, 
and was, moreover, himself a young man of 
wonderful parts and deep religious aspirations. 
He was met, when he stepped upon the colonial 
soil, with profound deference, and his accession 
to the high office was greeted " by many great 
shot." The young Governor, thus flatteringly 
established in power, proved no mere place- 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 147 

man ; it was just this man whom Mrs. Hutch- 
inson took captive with her sentiments. Cotton 
and Wheelwright were standard-bearers in the 
pulpit of the same sentiments. Coddington 
and Dummer, two eminent magistrates, fell into 
line, and all of the Boston membership, it is 
said, except five. Wilson, Cotton's colleague, 
and Winthrop, a host in himself, were oppo- 
nents. Most of the country Churches, with 
their pastors, were anti-Hutchinsonites. The 
reader will see that the conditions were favor- 
able for a first-class quarrel, and such it be- 
came. When Wilson, a man who, before men's 
blood was heated, was universally venerated, 
rose to speak, Mrs. Hutchinson walked out of 
church, followed by many of her adherents. 
Offensive language was used, and old friends 
became alienated. What the precise merit was 
of the theological question upon which they 
differed it is hard to tell. Perhaps it had no 
merit. A conference was called of magistrates 
and Pastors " to advise about discovering and 
pacifying differences among the Churches in 
point of opinion." The discussion which en- 
sued was mainly between Governor Vane and 
the fiery Hugh Peters, both of whom were des- 



148 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

tined to figure prominently in the coming stir- 
ring scenes of the mother country. Peters 
gravely corrected the Governor ; Wilson uttered 
what was termed " a sad speech," for which he 
" was brought to account " by the Boston 
Church, lectured sharply by the Governor, and 
" gravely exhorted " by Cotton. 

The General Court, in concurrence with the 
elders, took the troubles in hand, and appointed 
a fast for general humiliation and pacification. 
Wheelwright took occasion on fast-day to de- 
nounce the sentiments of his opponents. For 
this the Court convicted him of sedition. The 
Governor and the Boston Church interfered in 
his behalf The Court showed its resentment 
by appointing " New Town," now Cambridge, 
as the place of its next session, and when it 
met. May, 1637, fiery speeches and sharp man- 
agement prevailed, quite on the verge of blows, 
'' for some laid hands on others." The old 
rulers triumphed, and the Boston party went 
down, carrying Vane and his associates into 
private life. The combined country vote de- 
posed them, and put Winthrop into office again. 
Vane soon left the country. A grand synod 
met in Cambridge to settle differences. They 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 149 

sat three weeks, and considered the opinions 
which were afloat, and condemned eighty-two 
of them, which they specified. Cotton joined 
in the condemnation with httle quaUfication, 
and may be considered as abandoning the 
Hutchinsonites from this time. The war against 
the Pequots raged during the very summer of 
these later transactions, and the measures of the 
Government for its prosecution had been crip- 
pled by them. But the dissensions seemed 
tending to abatement, when in the fall and early 
winter they broke out anew. Wheelwright, 
whose sentence from the Court was pending, 
not only adhered to his sentiments and studi- 
ously published them, but defied the Court. 
Certain Boston brethren who had petitioned in 
his behalf had been understood to intimate in 
their manifesto that they might resort to arms. 
Wheelwright was even more offensive, for he 
threatened to appeal to the king, which amount- 
ed to an appeal to the colony's worst enemy, 
Bishop Laud. Even his own partisans hated 
the powers over the water, so this was a fatal 
word to his influence. A sentence of banish- 
ment was issued against him. Mrs. Hutchin- 
son was next arraigned, and not only main- 



150 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

tained her former sentiments, but laid higher 
claims to personal inspiration than before. She 
was sentenced to banishment, but allowed to 
remain in a friend's house, under watch-care, 
during the winter weather. She was soon after 
excluded from the Church by her old friends, 
Cotton acquiescing, and none objecting, except 
her two sons. 

The signers of the petition in behalf of 
Wheelwright were now called to a more strict 
account. A few recanted, and were forgiven. 
The rest, with other " stirrers of sedition," 
seventy-five in all, were required forthwith to 
surrender their arms until they should give 
proper assurance of loyalty. Some of them 
were proceeded with " in a Church way," and, 
for adherence to their alleged errors, excluded. 

In the spring the banished ones, and those 
who felt that the pressure in their old homes 
was equivalent to banishment, went forth to 
seek a more congenial resting-place. With 
these elements thus stirred up and sent forth 
Roger Williams became immediately associated. 
Their sentiments, spirit, and conduct must be 
kept in mind, to understand his spirit and line 
of service. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 151 

The conduct of the Massachusetts Govern- 
ment in their case has been, and will long be, 
a subject of discussion and criticism. Its friends 
urge that it did but put down sedition ; that its 
rulers felt that if they did not put down the new 
opinions the King and his primate would seize 
upon these opinions as a desired pretext to put 
them down and stamp out their liberties ; that 
they were banished and disarmed not for relig- 
ious opinions, but for violation of just laws. 

Their opposers urge that an unwillingness to 
brook dissent underlay all the action of the 
rulers ; that the quarrel began and ended in a 
difference on religious questions ; and that the 
spirit of the Government was seen at Salem 
when the Browns were sent home for Episcopal 
sympathies, before the pressure upon the colony 
from the old country was so keenly felt. 

It will be well, before we condemn either 
party too unqualifiedly, to ask ourselves whether, 
under the provocations of either, we should 
have been likely to have behaved any better. 
*' Man is all vanity." 

In the spring of 1638 Mrs. Hutchinson and 

her husband, William, who seemed to concede 

that she was man enough for them both, turn 
10 



p 



152 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 



up in the cabin of Roger Williams. Codding- 
ton, the eminent magistrate ; John Clarke, a 
distinguished physician and good man, were I 
there, with others of like sympathy. Why , 
they were there, and what came of it, we shall 
see. 




Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 153 



CHAPTER XVI. 

FRIENDLY AID GIVEN. 

OOME of those whom we have mentioned as 
^ in conference with Roger WiUiams had, 
on leaving Boston, gone farther north-east for a 
home ; but, finding the cHmate too cold, had 
turned their steps southward, purposing to go 
to the Delaware Bay. Lodging at Williams' 
cabin, they found hospitable entertainment, 
and, as they thought, good counsel. He ad- 
vised them to remain in his vicinity, and called 
their attention to Sowams, a little farther down 
the eastern side of Narragansett Bay from 
Providence, and to a beautiful island of the bay 
called Aquedneck.* They were pleased with 
the suggestion. That there might be no fut- 
ure dispute upon English ownership, Mr. Will- 
iams and Mr. Clarke, with two others, visited 
Plymouth. Its authorities received them with 
their usual good spirit, told them they claimed 

* This name, and, in fact, most of the Indian names, are 
spelled in many ways. 



154 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 



Sowams as within their judisdiction, but not 
Aquedneck. To this island, then, the emi 
grants decided to go. But now came the ques 
tion of Indian ownership, to dispose of which 
WilUams could do what no other man could. 
As he had aided willingly the Massachusetts 
powers in the late war, so now, with an ever 
ready sympathy with those in trouble, he gives 
his good offices to those whom they had cast 
out. The royal owners, Canonicus and Mianto 
nomo, " were very shy and jealous of selling 
the lands," yet they were willing to bestow them 
" as a gratuity " upon their loving friends, among 
the best of whom, of course, was Williams. 
But they were willing to take a gift, and forty 
fathoms of white beads were given. Williams 
obtained from them a deed to make all secure, \ 
but the Indians occupying the island had to be 
induced to leave by further gifts, and so the 
gift business went on, after the usual Indian re- 
quisition, until the colony averred that " though 
the favor of Mr. Williams had with Miantonomo 
was the great means of procuring the grants of 
the lands, yet the purchase had been dearer 
than of any lands in New England." 

Having arranged for the settlement of Aqued- 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 155 

neck, the emigrants drew up at Providence a 
compact which was signed by nineteen of them, 
seventeen of whom were among those disarmed 
in Massachusetts. It was a kind of pohtical 
constitution and Church covenant combined ; 
and as they required all' who became citizens 
to be voted in "by the major part," and to sub- 
scribe to the compact, it was not quite so broad 
a ground as that taken by Roger Williams, who 
extended his toleration to all, " Jews or Gentiles, 
Christians or Pagan." The words of the com- 
pact are as follows : 

'*We whose names are underwritten do 
swear solemnly, in the presence of Jehovah, 
to incorporate ourselves into a body politic, and 
as he shall help us, will submit our persons, 
lives, and estates unto the Lord Jesus Christ, 
the King of kings and Lord of lords, and to 
all those most perfect and absolute laws of his 
given us in his Holy Word of truth, to be 
guided and judged thereby." 

It will be seen that this constitution afforded 
the broadest Christian toleration, and seems to 
have been broad enough for all who desired 
to come. 

Aquedneck, upon which they settled, was a 



156 Foot-pi'ints of Roger Williams. 

few years later called Rhode Island, or the 
*' Isle of Rhodes." A late writer * traces this 
name to an early Dutch navigator, who, notic- 
ing a red clay about its shores, called it " Roodt 
lylant" — the Red Island, which, by an easy 
transposition, became Rhode Island. 

On this beautiful island, later giving name to 
a State, the emigrants settled. Their town, on 
its northern shore, they called Portsmouth. 
They chose Coddington judge, after the Jew- 
ish fashion, but soon associated with him three 
elders. Emigrants came in considerable num- 
bers, and the next spring a part of the first 
settlers pushed to the southern end of the 
island, and commenced a new town called New- 
port. But both towns were considered belong- 
ing to one colony. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson and their family 
removed with these emigrants to Aquedneck. 
He was honored with office, and died there in 
1642. His sons also had office in the settle- 
ment, and the more distinguished wife and 
mother seems to have been content to fall into 
comparative obscurity. Perhaps she learned, 
as most warm religious controversialists do, 

* Arnold's History of Rhode Island, vol. i, p. 70. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 157 

controversy's utter profitlessness. She moved, 
after her husband's death, to the neighborhood 
of New York, where soon after she and all her 
family, except one — sixteen persons — were killed 
by the bloody hands of the Indians. The sur- 
vivor, a daughter eight years old, was carried 
into captivity, in which she lived four years, 
when she was recovered and restored to her 
friends by the influential interference of the 
General Court of Massachusetts. 

While the island settlement was getting 
started, some people went from Providence to 
Pawtuxet river and started a new town. This, 
it will be recollected, was a part of the territory 
in the original grant to Roger Williams. It 
became a great source of disquietude to him 
because of the disputes which arose about 
titles and jurisdiction. At one time some of its 
uneasy citizens invited Massachusetts to rule 
over them, and the Boston authorities, thinking, 
no doubt, that they needed more ruHng, con- 
sented to try their hand at it, though they did 
not pretend that their charter extended to 
them. 

But at all times during this early period of 
his life at Providence, and in spite of all diver- 



158 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

sion, Williams was conciliating the relations of 
the White people and the Red Men. Some plain 
letters passed between him and Governor Win- 
throp in 1638, in which the Governor seems to 
reflect not only upon the integrity of the Indian 
Chiefs, but also upon the wisdom in the man- 
agement of Williams. But the latter answers 
all complaints in detail. The Pequots, either 
as slaves or as lawless stragglers, committed 
outrages on all parties, and made much trouble. 
The Mohegans, too, the old enemies of the Nar- 
ragansetts, now that the common foe, the Pe- 
quots, was destroyed, became much suspected, 
and their Chief, Uncas, was watched with jeal- 
ousy. So hot was the Indian blood getting 
that Miantonomo took a guard of over one hun- 
dred and fifty men to visit Connecticut, and 
confer with his white friends there about the 
troubles. Williams sent him word he would 
accompany him, and the Chief waited two days 
for him to get ready. On the way the com- 
plaints against the Mohegans grew louder and 
more bitter, proclaiming robberies and murder. 
One party which they met spoke of six hundred 
Mohegans and their confederates as having 
plundered large tracts of corn two days before, 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 159 

and as lying in wait farther toward Hartford to 
cut off the party of Miantonomo, whom they 
threatened to boil in a kettle. Things looked 
squally. The bad news received much confir- 
mation, and Williams' two English companions 
advised a retreat, in which he, though not easily 
frightened, joined. But the Indian Chief and 
his council were plucky. " We are half-way," 
they said, "and not a man shall turn back." 
Throwing out guards on every side to prevent 
surprise, they pushed on and arrived at Hart- 
ford safely. They afterward learned that the 
waylaying party missed them by having expected 
them two days earlier, according to the time 
Miantonomo had given out that he should start. 
So it turned out that Williams' detention of the 
party, that he might keep the Sabbath at home, 
had saved them from a bloody collision. 

Haynes, the Governor of Connecticut, sent 
on their arrival for Uncas, that matters might 
be adjusted. Uncas returned answer that he 
was lame and could not come. The Governor 
said this was " a lame " excuse, and sent so ur- 
gent a message that the wily Chief came along. 
Now came the criminations and recriminations 
of the Narragansetts and Mohegans, the Gov- 



l6o Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

ernor and Williams letting them " give vent and 
breathing " to their feelings, while they endeav- 
ored to ascertain where the truth lay. Seeing 
that there had been mutual blame, the umpires 
" drew Miantonomo and Uncas to shake hands," 
a mode of reconciliation that often proves but 
a feigning of good-will. On the Narragansett 
Chiefs part there seems to have been a cordial 
burying of the hatchet, for he twice earnestly 
invited Uncas and all his men to dine and sup 
with him on venison which his men had brought 
in, the Governor and Williams urging him to 
accept the invitation. But Uncas persistently 
refused the feast, as he evidently did in heart 
the reconciliation. The reader will recollect 
Miantonomo's part in this incident when in the 
course of this narrative our last word concern- 
ing him is told. 

When Williams returned, he promptly in- 
formed Governor Winthrop of the results of his 
conciliatory embassy. In this letter is the fol- 
lowing, which illustrates Williams' spirit and 
his style of writing on religious topics : 

"Mr. Vane hath written (from England) to 
Mr. Coddington and others on the island to 
remove from Boston as speedily as they might, 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. i6i 

because some evil was ripening, etc. The most 
Holy and Mighty One blast all mischievous buds 
and blossoms, and prepare us for tears in the 
valley of tears, help you and us to trample on 
the dunghill of this present world, and to set 
affections and cast anchor above these heavens 
and earth, which are reserved for burning ! " 

In the summer of this year, 1638, occurred 
near Providence a shocking murder of an In- 
dian by four White men — runaways from Plym- 
outh. The affair shocked, of course, all the 
English, and threw for a time the Indians into 
a ferment of revenge. Williams entertained 
the murderers immediately after the deed was 
done, without of course knowing their charac- 
ter. When the fact came to him, he dispatched 
men after them, and ran himself to the woods 
to find the murdered man. He was still alive, 
but barely able to speak. He gave his dying 
testimony, and was carefully nursed for a few 
hours and then expired. One of the per- 
petrators of this deed, with which "strong 
water " had probably something to do, escaped 
from Aqueneck in a boat. The other three 
were there arrested and sent to Providence, from 
when^, by Winthrop's advice^ they were sent 



1 62 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

to Plymouth. The Pilgrims gave them a fair 
trial by a jury composed of an equal number 
of Englishmen and Indians, and they, being 
found guilty, were hanged. 

In September of this year, Williams' eldest 
son was born, to whom he gave the name of 
Providence. He was the first English male 
child born there. The first Enghsh female child 
was born a few months before. 

While thus blessed in his domestic relations, 
and blessing others with his sympathy and aid, 
Mr. Williams was embarrassed in his financial 
interest. The source, in part, of this embarrass- 
ment was peculiarly trying to his patience when 
all the circumstances are considered. Some of 
those at Providence and neighboring settle- 
ments who had been banished from Massachu- 
setts, took occasion to write and speak hard 
things of her rulers. One man had said his 
hard things in her territory, been called to ac- 
count for it, and, confessing before the magis- 
trates his error, was freely forgiven. He then 
left, went to Providence, took back his retraction, 
and launched his philippics from his safe place 
at the heads of his old rulers. With their usual 
thoroughness in dealing with contemners of their 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 163 

authority, Massachusetts proclaimed virtual 
non-intercourse with Rhode Island. All per- 
sons coming from it were arrested, brought 
before a magistrate and made to swear, on pain 
of immediate banishment, dissent from such 
sentiments against their authority, as above 
expressed. This shut out trade between the 
settlements, and subjected the Providence peo- 
ple, who had then no ships visiting them, to 
great inconvenience. Williams often alludes, 
not in bitterness but sorrow, to this state of 
things. 



164 Foot-prints of Roger Willimns. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

IMPORTANT CHANGES. 

T T is pleasant, in tracing the history of a great 
-*- and good man, to turn from wars, great per- 
sonal crimes, and the weaknesses of Christians, 
to matters strictly religious. But, alas, that 
weaknesses should so adhere to even great and 
good men ! It would be pleasant to write, as it 
would be agreeable and profitable for the reader 
to peruse, a detailed account of the personal 
and social religious growth of Providence. But 
it was not written at the only time when it could 
have been. We are inclined to think that its 
good people, including Williams, cultivated their 
spiritual life more within themselves than under 
other circumstances they would have chosen to 
do. Religion is, of course, a matter essentially 
between one's own heart and God. But it has 
an outward social development. This might 
have been restrained in the earlier months, and 
even for a year or two, by sharply defined dif- 
ferences of views which had been so magnified 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 165 

that each adherent felt that on his notions hung 
''all the law and the prophets," and the best 
part of the Gospel. Then, again, they were 
making a desperate struggle for their daily 
bread, (this was especially the case with Will- 
iams,) for political existence, and as against the 
Indians for life itself 

But they had from the beginning Sunday 
public worship. We have seen that Williams 
detained Miantonomo's expedition to Connecti- 
cut two days, that he might keep that holy day. 
He was a recognized ordained minister, and 
claims in a later controversy with Mr. Cotton 
that, notwithstanding all the pressure of other 
things, his time had been spent in spiritual 
labors " as much as any other's whosoever." 
Thomas James, another of the original proprie- 
tors, was also an ordained minister. The eccen- 
tric Rev. William Blackstone, who came to 
Rhode Island two years after Williams, was liv- 
ing only six miles distant, and was known to visit 
Providence for religious purposes. Tradition, 
which is more reliable on such subjects than 
most others, speaks of grove meetings in these 
early days, when on pleasant warm Sabbaths 
the devout of " all consciences " prayed, sang, 



1 66 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

and listened to the Word, under the dome of 
nature's grand temple. 

The first definitely recorded movement to- 
ward a Church was in March, 1639, three years 
after the founding of the colony. It grew out 
of an act on the part of Williams which our 
readers will interpret differently, and which, 
as *' soul liberty " is fully recognized now, they 
may do without contention. 

Mr. Wilhams, on March, 1639, publicly pro- 
fessed his belief that immersion only was bap- 
tism. How long he had held this opinion, and 
by what influences he was led to it, we do not 
know. Governor Winthrop attributes it to the 
arguments of a Mrs. Scott, sister to Mrs. Ann 
Hutchinson. But, however Williams came by 
his convictions, we may be certain they were 
his own at last. 

Feeling, then, in common with a number of 
his Christian friends, that he was not baptized, 
and that he ought to be, the question came. 
How to secure the ordinance } There was, 
probably, no minister in any of the colonies 
who would baptize him. With his customary 
decision he solved the question. One of his 
lay brethren, a Mr. Holliman, a man " of gifts 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 167 

and piety," immersed him ; Mr. Williams then 
immersed Mr. Holliman and ten others. Thus 
was founded the first Baptist Church in 
America. 

A few months later Mr. Williams made 
another change, which still more grieved his 
friends during his life-time, and excites painful 
regret in the lovers of his memory, and the ad- 
mirers of the generally noble traits of his char- 
acter. This change was the no less serious act 
than that of withdrawins: altoo:ether from the 
visible Christian Church. This, as we shall see, 
was not in reference to any change of his views 
concerning his recent baptism as a distinctive 
question. The fact of this withdrawal is stated 
by Governor Winthrop, and by Mr. Scott, who 
was a member of the Church in Providence at 
the time. The reason they give is, in substance, 
this : Mr. Williams had come to the conclusion 
that there could be no authority on earth to 
gather and organize a Christian Church and to 
administer its ordinances, except it was derived 
in an unbroken succession from the Apostles. 
But the authority is now, he declared, through 
either the Church of England, which " is an ill 

authority," or through the Church of Rome, 
U 



1 6S Foot-prints of Roger Williams, 

which is Antichrist. Hence he persuaded 
himself that the visible Church, with its pas- 
toral office and its ordinances of Baptism and 
the Lord's Supper, had ceased to exist. He 
looked for the speedy overthrow of Rome, and 
the restoration of a true Church. These views, 
stated by others, are confirmed by extracts from 
his later writings, both epistolary and contro- 
versial. The following letter,* written to Gov- 
ernor Winthrop, of Connecticut, under date of 
September lo, 1649, throws light upon his 
views : " At Seekonk a great many have lately 
concurred with Mr. Jo. Clarke and our Provi- 
dence men about the point of a new baptism 
and the manner of dipping ; and Mr. Jo. 
Clarke hath been there lately, and Mr. Lucar, 
and hath dipped many. I believe their practice 
comes nearer the first practice of our great 
Founder, Christ Jesus, than any other practices 
of religion do ; and yet I have not satisfaction, 
neither in the authority by which it is done, 
nor in the manner, nor in the prophecies con- 
cerning the rising of Christ's kingdom after 
the desolation by Rome. It is here said that 
the Bay hath decreed to prosecute such, and 

* Mass. Hist. Col. 4 Series. Vol. vi, p. 274. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 169 

hath writ to Plymouth to prosecute at See- 
konk." 

The old friends of Williams of the Salem 
Church proceeded to act on his case, and those 
from that Church who were his fellow-offend- 
ers. Their exclusion is announced to the other 
Churches of the Bay in a circular letter signed 
by the pastor, Hugh Peters, WilHams' succes- 
sor. The reason for the exclusion is given in 
these words : " These wholly refused to hear 
the Church, denying it, and all the Churches in 
the Bay, to be true Churches, and all, except 
two, are rebaptized." 

It is pleasant to be able to state that Mr. Will- 
iams did not indulge, as his false position made 
an occasion for him to do, an uncharitable spirit 
toward those who remained in the Church hon- 
oring its ministry and upholding its ordinances. 
He wrote, in 1644: "Thousands and tens of 
thousands, yea, the whole generation of the 
righteous, who, since the falling away from the 
primitive state or worship, have and do err 
fundamentally concerning the true matter, 
constitution, gathering, and governing of the 
Church ; and yet, far be it from any pious 
breast to imagine that they are not saved, and 



170 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

that their souls are not bound up in the bundle 
of eternal life." 

There is a relieving circumstance to his false 
position even better than this. He continued, 
in happy inconsistency, to virtually preach and 
labor publicly to win souls to Christ. He be- 
lieved that the office of " teacher " was not ex- 
tinct ; that is, that a man might be moved by 
the Holy Ghost to publicly explain and enforce 
God's word — the essence of the duty of a Gos- 
pel minister, we should think. We shall, there- 
fore, find him engaged in the good work of 
preaching to the Indians, and seeking to pub- 
lish his sermons as tracts for their spiritual 
welfare. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. lyi 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

SOME SAD THINGS. 

THE character of Mr. Williams cannot be 
understood without following him to some 
extent in his relations to the stirring events 
which were going on around him. Unhappily, 
these events involved great differences between 
the colonists. They excited bitter altercations 
at the time, and have been subjects of discus- 
sion among historians to this day, who arrive at 
different conclusions in reference to them. But 
time and patient investigation is narrowing the 
divergency of these conclusions. We shall 
note the events only so far as we deem them 
indispensable to the appreciation of Williams' 
conduct and spirit. 

That part of Providence which made the 
village of Pawtuxet on its southern boundary 
seemed appointed unto contention. First, their 
boundary line and the rights of its settlers to 
certain meadows were in dispute. Though 
they proved themselves abundantly able to 



1/2 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

carry on a first-class neighborhood quarrel 
without the help of any new-comer specially 
gifted in this direction, yet such a one came. 
His name was Samuel Gorton. He was a puz- 
zle, a wonder, and, to some extent certainly, a 
pest to the people of his day. He had his ad- 
mirers, of course, and seems to have had learn- 
ing, ability, and not a few good social and 
moral points. The difficulty of a proper 
estimate of his character is acknowledged at 
the present time. On coming to the country, 
in 1637, he went to Plymouth, where he raised 
a dust of controversy, and was contemptuous, 
for which, it is said, they whipped him. If the 
latter fact was true, we are quite sure he be- 
haved badly. He then went to Aquedneck, 
where, raising another dust, he received per- 
mission to leave, and not return. He then 
went to Providence, enjoyed Williams' hospita- 
ble entertainment, agreed with him in his views 
of liberty of conscience, but excited his disap- 
proval in reference to many other matters, 
stirred up the Providence people, and settled 
down at the village of Pawtuxet. Here he was 
joined by old friends from Aquedneck, with 
whom he united in so heated a quarrel with the 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 1 73 

other settlers that the parties came to blows, 
and some bad blood was shed. His opponents 
seemed to acknowledge a defeat in this inglo- 
rious warfare, and appealed to Massachusetts 
for defense, whose rulers, though they claimed 
no chartered right to the territory, responded 
to the appeal, and undertook to right up things 
at Providence. Foreseeing the rod, Gorton and 
his friends went across the Pawtuxet river, con- 
tracted for a site with the chief sachems, and 
formed what became the town of Warwick. 
But contention, like a tainted air, followed 
them. Subordinate chiefs disputed their title, 
appealed to Massachusetts, before whose author- 
ities Gorton and his friends were brought by an 
armed force. If at the hands of the mild, con- 
siderate Pilgrims Gorton was whipped, he might 
well tremble now. He was put upon trial for 
his life, with his ten companions, and escaped, 
it is said, capital punishment by three votes 
only. They were kept during the following 
winter at labor, with a chain bolted to the leg. 
In the spring they were dismissed with the ad- 
monition not to trespass upon any Massachu- 
setts territory nor to return to Warwick on 
pain of death. 



174 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

While these painful transactions were going 
on, Indian troubles were assuming a new aspect. 
The Indians were fast obtaining possession of 
fire-arms, and acquiring skill in their use. Dutch 
and other unprincipled traders had supplied 
them with muskets and ammunition, and their 
bearing was considered increasingly insolent. 
Thus threatened, Massachusetts, Plymouth, 
Connecticut, entered into a confederation. Its 
terms were signed May 19, 1643. Its object 
was, " Mutual help and strength in all future 
concernment, that as in nation and in religion 
so in other respects we be and continue one." 
It was the foreshadowing of the constitutional 
unity of the North American States. Confed- 
eration was to the fathers, as to their children, 
a tower of strength. 

But in this new formed colonial unity, Provi- 
dence and the Island settlements were left out 
in the cold. The moral influence of this fact 
upon the Indians must have been bad, and 
increased the exposure of the rejected English- 
men to savage hostility. But it is not too 
much to say that Roger Williams alone was a bet- 
ter defense to his people against Indian wrongs 
than all the guns of the combined colonies. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 175 

The reader will now see, in the movements of 
Roger Williams and his friends, the connection 
with our story of what has thus far been stated 
in this chapter. The danger to their inde- 
pendence threatening them from Massachusetts, 
their growing numbers and developing unity of 
interest, made Aquedneck and Providence talk 
of a political unity. And, as their civil exist- 
ence was ignored by their neighbors, they began 
to move to obtain a charter from the Home 
Government. Newport inaugurated the move- 
ment in the fall of 1642. The island soon after 
united with Providence in sending Roger Will- 
iams to England to secure this important object. 
Not being permitted to sail from a Massachu- 
setts port, he left for New York about the time 
of the formation of the colonial compact, and 
was no doubt quickened in the interests of his 
missions by the omission from it of his people. 
His domestic responsibilities had been increased 
by the birth of his fourth child, in July, 1640, 
and by that of a second son in February, 1642. 
His poverty was still pressing him sorely, and 
the expenses of his mission, as we shall learn, 
were but loosely guaranteed by his constituents. 
Yet he braved all for the common weal. On 



176 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

arriving at New York — then '' Manhattoes " — 
he found a cruel war raging between the Dutch 
and Indians. It was the one in which Mrs. 
Hutchinson and family had been killed. He 
interposed his powerful influence, and secured, 
for the time at least, a peace. He then em- i 
barked on board a Dutch ship for the land of 
his fathers and of his youth. 

Leaving Williams on the wide ocean, let us 
turn to an event which transpired in his ab- 
sence — one of the saddest in the history of New 
England. 

The reader has met Miantonomo in Council 
with Mr. Williams, in faithful co-operation with 
the English in fighting the Pequots, in honored 
intercourse with the rulers in Boston, and in the 
perilous march from Narragansett to the Con- 
necticut. Whether in Council or in war, he is, 
so far as the records show, the discerning, high- 
minded, faithful, and energetic friend of the 
Whites. A few weeks after Williams left the 
country a war occurred between Uncas and 
Sequasson, a Sachem on the Connecticut river, 
who was on friendly relations with Miantonomo. 
Both the parties in the fight appealed to the 
English, who in effect replied. You may fight 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 177 

the quarrel out. Miantonomo took up the cause 
of his ally, and, in conformity with a treaty 
stipulation of six years before, inquired of the 
Governor at Boston if he would be offended 
if he made war upon Uncas. The Governor 
threw the responsibility back upon the Chief, 
telling him that if he had been wronged and 
could not get satisfaction he must do as he 
thought wise and right. Being relieved, there- 
fore, from the fear of a fire in the rear from the 
English, Miantonomo hastened to the field of 
action with a thousand men, Uncas was his 
old foe, and the enmity thinly covered in the 
union of the two tribes against the Pequots 
seems to have urged the Narragansett Chief on 
with unguarded impetuosity. Uncas met and 
defeated his whole force with not more, it is 
stated, than four hundred men, proving that 
" The battle is not to the strong." Besides de- 
feat, the unfortunate Chief encountered treach- 
ery among his own men. Two of his captains 
betrayed him into the hands of Uncas. His 
subjects offered a large ransom for him, and 
claimed afterward that it had been accepted 
with a promise of his release. Gorton, to whom 
and his friends he had sold Warwick, sent word 



178 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 



\ 



to Uncas to deliver up his royal captive to thi 
English at Hartford, threatening him with their < 
vengeance unless he did. Gorton hoped there- n 
by to secure his liberty. Miantonomo was car->» 
ried to Hartford, and at his own request kept| 
under guard until the meeting of the Commis-1 
sioners of the United Colonies at Boston the | 
following month. Uncas submitted the disposal J 
of his prisoner to them, and they accepted this "* 
gratuitous service. This responsible body of 
men declared after deliberation that they did 
not see sufficient grounds for putting him to 
death, but they did not think that it was safe to 
set him at liberty. In this perplexity they 
" called in five of the most judicious Elders 
and propounded the case to them, and they all 
agreed that he ought to be put to death." The 
Commissioners were then ordered to call Un- 
cas on their return to Hartford, and deliver to 
him the captive Sachem, telling him that he might 
put him to death as soon as he reached his own 
territory. The Commissioners, of course, de- 
livered this order. Two Englishmen were sent 
with Uncas to witness the execution, and to 
promise him aid if the affair brought down upon 
him the fury of Miantonomo's friends. No 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 179 

Williams was not near to throw himself between 

I his old friend and the condemning Elders and 

I Commissioners, and to ward off the murderous 
II 
arm of Uncas. The sentence was executed in 

its letter and spirit. 

It is said in defense of this atrocity that 
' Miantonomo was at the head of a general con- 
spiracy of the Indians against the English ; 
that he had broken his agreement made at 
Hartford, ^.nd that he was turbulent in spirit. 
But the Commissioners did not believe this, for 
their verdict in effect was. We find in him 
nothing worthy of death. 

To be sure they gave a ready concurrence, as 
an after-thought, with the sentence of the Eld- 
ers. It is a noteworthy fact, too, that they 
consulted only five of the fifty Elders then 
assembled at Boston in a General Convocation. 
We may charitably believe, in absence of proof to 
vhe contrary, that the remaining forty-five would 
have given their voice against the condemnation. 
" From their own account of this affair the En- 
glish of the United Colonies stand condemned 
in the trial of time at the bar of history." * 

* Samuel G. Drake, in "Biography and History of the In- 
dians of North America." Book II, p. 65. 



r8o Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

MUCH PLEASANTER MATTERS. 

"^ "X JE left Williams on board a Dutch ship 
* ' at Manhattoes, about to sail for the 
father-land. We must not think of him as on i 
board one of our modern sumptuous packet- 
ships, much less as enjoying the elegant accom- 
modations of an ocean steamer. A Dutch ship 
then was less comfortable than "a coaster " now, 
and the voyage to England was no pleasant ex- 
cursion. We should be interested to know the 
incidents of this trip made in the summer of 
1643 by the Founder of a State. But we 
doubt whether he thought any body would care 
to read them. Besides, he had employment in 
reference to his life-work — the instruction of the 
Indians. 

He had, we have seen, been diligently for 
fourteen years gathering scraps of information 
concerning the Indian language. Now, in the 
ship's cabin, with its disquietudes, he carefully 
amplifies and arranges them. They grow to a 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 1 8 1 

repository of knowledge on the subject, which 
he pubHshes immediately on his arrival in Lon- 
don under the title of " A Key into the Lan- 
guage of America ; or, A Help to the Language 
of the Natives in that part of America called 
New England." It contained, also, valuable in- 
formation concerning the Indian tribes, then 
little known, to all of which were added " Spir- 
itual observations, general and particular." It 
was dedicated to "well-beloved friends in Old 
and New England." He says, "The key re- 
spects the native language of it, and happily 
may unlock some rarities concerning the natives 
themselves. A little key may open a box, 
where lies a bunch of keys." His desire for 
the conversion of the Indians, which was ever 
the burden of his heart, he expresses in the 
dedication in his own peculiar way : " I am com- 
fortably persuaded that the Father of Spirits 
who was graciously pleased to persuade Japhet, 
the Gentile, to dwell in the tents of Shem, the 
Jew, will in his holy season (I hope approach- 
ing) persuade the Gentiles of America to par- 
take of the mercies of Europe ; and then shall 
be fulfilled what is written by the prophet 
Malachi, that from the rising of the sun — in 



1 82 Foot-priuts of Roger Williams. 

Europe — to the going down of the same — in 
America — my name shall be great among the 
Gentiles." 

The following will answer for examples of his 
method of "improving" in a pious manner 
upon the definitions and phrases given in the 
book. It made a religious tract of his diction- 
ary. " Manit, Manittowock. — God, gods. 

Observation. He that questions whether 
God made the world, the Indians will teach 
him. I must acknowledge I have received in 
my converse with them many a confirmation 
of those two great points, Heb. xi, 6, namely, 
I. That God is ; 2. That he is a rewarder of 
them that diligently seek him. They will gen- 
erally confess that God made all ; but them in 
special, although they deny not that English- 
men's God made Englishmen, and the heavens 
and earth there ; yet their gods made them, and 
the heavens and the earth where they dwell. 

" Nummus quauna — muckqun manit. — God is 
angry with me. Observation. I heard a poor 
Indian, lamenting the loss of a child, at break of 
day call up his wife and children and all about 
him to lamentation. With abundance of tears 
he cried out, 'O God, thou hast taken away 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 183 

my child ! thou art angry with me ! O, turn 
thine anger from me, and spare the rest of my 
children." 

Not content with his prose comments and 
reflections on his definitions, Mr. Williams ven- 
tures into daring experiments in poesy. The 
reader will not suspect that he borrowed the 
following example from one of the old fathers 
of the poetic gift : 

" Two sorts of men shall naked stand 

Before the burning ire 
Of Him that shortly shall appear 

In dreadful flaming fire. 
First, millions know not God, nor for 

His knowledge care to seek ; 
Millions have knowledge store, but in 

Obedience are not meek. 
If woe to Indians, where shall Turk, 

Where shall appear the Jew ? 
O, where shall stand the Christian false ? 

O, blessed then the true ! " 

"The Key" closes in the following devout 
strain, which is worth many times all its rhym- 
ing, and which exhibits in a pleasing light the 
spirit of its author : " Now to the most high 
and most holy, immortal, invisible, and only 
wise God, who alone is Alpha and Omega, the 

beginning and the ending, the first and the last, 
12 



184 Foot-prints of Roger Willimns. 

who was and is and is to come; by whose 
gracious assistance and wonderful supportment 
in so many varieties of hardships and miseries 
I have had such converse with barbarous na- 
tions, and have been mercifully assisted to 
frame this poor Key, which may through his 
blessing, in his own holy season, open a door, 
yea, doors of unknown mercies to us and them, 
be honor, glory, power, riches, wisdom, good- 
ness, and dominion ascribed by all his, in Christ 
Jesus to eternity. Amen." 

Mr. Wilhams stepped ashore in London, his 
manuscript " Key " in hand, and burdened with 
the responsibilities of his mission, to encounter 
a whirlwind of political convulsion. The mass 
of the people were in arms against their infatu- 
ated King, Charles I. The fight was yet raging, 
and the result uncertain. The Parliament, the 
people's government, had the inside track, hold- 
ing the reins of power. Henry Vane, recently 
the young Governor of Massachusetts, who had 
shared with Williams the confidence of the In- 
dians, was now Sir Henry Vane, and high in 
authority in the anti-King Charles movement. 
Williams, whose friendship he shared in New 
England, became his guest in his aristocratic 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 185 

home. Men in high places had ears more than 
ever before for WilHams' doctrine of religious 
liberty. The breezes favoring his mission were 
steadily rising, and he had skill enough to 
spread his sails to catch them. The House of 
Commons had passed the previous spring a 
liberal law in reference to New England com- 
merce, intended to conciliate toward its side of 
the fight the colonies. Scarcely had Williams 
become domiciled with his influential friend, 
before a Council for the Colonies was appointed, 
with the Earl of Warwick at its head. This, 
for Williams, was a spanking breeze in the right 
direction. Sir Henry aided him in getting his 
craft in good trim, and he was soon laden with 
a charter for *' Providence Plantations in the 
Narragansett Bay in New England." It asso- 
ciated Portsmouth and Newport on Aquedneck, 
(now getting to be known as Rhode Island,) and 
Providence. It gave the English of the Nar- 
ragansett country, which included these towns, 
liberty to govern themselves, only requiring 
that their laws should conform to the laws 
of England " so far as the nature of the 
case would admit." His mission »was a 
complete success, and with a glad heart he 



I S6 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

turned his face toward his New England 
home. 

Before accompanying him in his voyage, or 
joining his townsmen in their welcome, let us 
pause briefly to notice a singular incident, and 
what came of it, which concerned Williams' 
history. 

A man during the stirring times preceding 
his visit lay in Newgate prison '* for conscience' 
sake." His body was closely shut up, but free- 
dom's air poured through his prison grates. He 
yearned to send a response to the notes that it 
wafted to him, but his voice could not be heard, 
and he had neither paper, pen, nor ink. But 
strong wills find ready ways. His keeper, a 
woman, brought him milk, in bottles whose stop- 
pers were paper, from a friend in London. On 
these he wrote in milk an essay on religious 
freedom. His friend in London, to whom the 
keeper sent it, read it by the fire and tran- 
scribed it. It found its way through the press, 
and a copy of it floated across the water to the 
Rev. John Cotton, of Boston, whom we met in 
the Hutchinson excitement. Mr. Cotton wrote 
an answer to it. Mr. Williams published, just 
before he closed his first charter mission, a reply 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 187 

to Cotton under the title of " The Bloody 
Tenet." He says of the author whom he re- 
views, "He writes, as love hopes, from godly 
intentions, hearts, and hands ; yet in a marvel- 
ous different style and manner from the ar- 
guments against persecution — the arguments 
against persecution in milk, the answer for it 
(as I may say) in blood." 

Williams's book is written in the form of a dia- 
logue between Truth and Peace. It discusses 
the question of religious liberty from the point 
of view taken at the present day by all lovers of 
freedom. Its arguments are put with spirit, and 
its style is often beautiful. It opens in this 
manner : 

" Truth. In what dark corner of the world, 
sweet Peace, are we two met } How hath this 
present evil world banished me from all the 
coasts and quarters of it, and how hath the 
righteous God, in judgment, taken thee from 
the earth } (Rev. vi, 4.) 

" Peace. 'Tis lamentably true, blessed Truth, 
that the foundations of the world have Ions: 
been out of course. The gates of earth and 
hell have conspired together to intercept our 
joyful meeting and our holy kisses. With what 



1 88 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

a weary, tired wing have I flown over nations, 
kingdoms, cities, and towns, to find out precious 
Truth." 

This tract called out a reply from Cotton and 
a rejoinder from Williams, both with quaint 
titles, and the controversy ran through a num- 
ber of years. The disputants, to their credit it 
may be said, dealt in sharp arguments, but kind 
words. 

Williams' heart and head appear well in them, 
but not better than in the circumstances under 
which some part of the series was prepared. 
He was, as we have said, in London. The 
commotion in the nation had stopped the sup- 
ply of coal from Newcastle. The poor of the 
city were mutinous for fuel. Williams received 
a commission from the Parliament and city to 
obtain supplies for them. This business brought 
him into many changes " of rooms and cor- 
ners," caused much travel, in which he was "in 
a variety of strange houses, sometimes in the 
fields, where he was forced to gather and scat- 
ter his loose thoughts and papers." 

It was fitting that thoughts in such an age on 
religious liberty should be penned in the midst 
of labors for the suffering poor. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 1 89 

Mr. Williams landed in Boston in September, 
1644. The reader, who saw him embark for 
England at New York because he was forbidden 
to visit the soil of Massachusetts, will wonder 
how he dared to take a return passage for its 
metropolis. The explanation is this. Several 
noblemen and others of Parliament gave him a 
letter addressed to the Governor, assistants, 
and their friends in general, of Massachusetts. 
They say they had long noticed " the affections 
of conscience " of Mr. Williams, and known 
his sufferings at the hands of the prelates. 
They speak of his " Key " in highly compli- 
mentary terms, and allude to his great and good 
labors in behalf of the Indians. They inform 
the Governor and his associates in ofBce that 
Parliament has given the bearer and his friends 
" a free and absolute charter of civil govern- 
ment." They say that they view with "sor- 
rowful resenting" "such a distance" between 
brethren in America who have experienced so 
many persecutions in common in the Old 
World and so much trial in the New, and who, 
at the same time, mutually speak well of each 
other. 

The purport of all this seemed to be, We 



1 90 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

think well of you, friends of Massachusetts, 
and highly also of Williams, and wish you to 
let him pass unmolested to his Narragansett 
home ; and this was done. But the Boston 
authorities declared at the same time that 
"upon the examination of their hearts they 
did not see any reason to regret former proceed- 
ings against him, or to change their course in 
the future, unless he could be brought to lay 
down " his dangerous principles of separation." 

Mr. Williams had a triumphal entrance into 
Providence. The citizens met him at Seekonk, 
and escorted his passage across the river in 
fourteen canoes, his canoe being " hemmed in 
in the middle" of them. 

He was "home again," and deservedly greeted 
as a benefactor. 

He found, nestled in the midst of his family, 
a little Joseph, born to him in his absence, and 
now about nine months old. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 191 



CHAPTER XX. 

AN OUTLOOK FROM A TRADING-HOUSE. 

^ I ^HE settlements about Narragansett Bay 
-^ were now, in their rights of self-govern- 
ment, on legal equality with the neighboring 
colonies. But their work of organization was 
yet in a very imperfect state. In bringing it 
into a good working condition they had peculiar 
difficulties to overcome. Tlie very excellence 
of their foundation material — the broadest re- 
ligious liberty — was an occasion of great per- 
plexity in building their political edifice. Their 
English brethren about them, in common with 
many other new-comers, gave it many a jostle, 
and hit it with sharp, disparaging words. It 
was the stone which other New England build- 
ers rejected, though now it is "the head of the 
corner" in all our political edifices. But the 
obstacles were not all from without. Their 
population became for a while in a measure 
like David's army, when he was endeavoring to 
secure to himself a God-given authority in op- 



192 Foot-prints of Roger Willimns. 

position to that of Saul. In 1645, when the 
charter had just come, there were in Providence 
alone one hundred and one men able to bear 
arms. But many of these refugees from the 
religious intolerance of both the Old and parts 
of the New World insisted that this new foun- 
dation-stone was intended for a house in which 
all were to do as they pleased. They abused 
the right of religious freedom, as many now 
abuse the right of a popular vote. The princi- 
ple in neither case is answerable for the abuse. 
The recipients of the new charter did not get 
their reconstructed ship of state afloat until 
1647. Her model was, as we have seen, in one 
important respect, new. Her builders had lit- 
tle or no precedent for such a construction. 
The officers and common hands had not well 
adjusted the question of their relation to each 
other. It is not strange, therefore, that she 
sailed at first only tolerably well. The builders 
of the first steamboat are said to have boasted 
greatly at her feat of four miles an hour against 
the current. This new political craft had a 
strong current, new machinery, and untried 
hands. We shall be prepared for a charitable 
judgment concerning her early efforts for sue- 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 193 

cess, and appreciate the credit of her ultimate, 
perfect triumph. 

We cannot follow the history of the difficul- 
ties between the settlements on the Massachu- 
setts and Narragansett bays. It is one of the 
most perplexing portions of our colonial history. 
We shall only glance at it as it crosses the path 
of Williams. 

At the organization of the Government un- 
der the charter John Coggeshall was chosen 
President, and Roger Williams one of the assist- 
ants. We naturally expect to see Williams' 
name connected with the highest office. But, 
as we shall notice, he had not been remunerated 
for his expenses in getting the charter. He 
might have been reluctant to take office under 
circumstances which compelled the colony soon 
after to follow Plymouth's example, and fine 
those who declined it. 

These new legislators proceeded to form a 
code of laws in reference to civil matters only. 
In reference to religion they add : " Let the 
lambs of the Most High walk in this colony 
without molestation, in the name of Jehovah 
their God, for ever and ever." 

One of the first acts of the colony was to 



194 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

vote Roger Williams a hundred pounds for his 
trouble and expense in getting their charter. 
It was assessed upon the three towns — fifty to 
Newport, thirty to Portsmouth, and twenty to 
Providence, which shows that the island towns 
had outstripped in wealth the mother town. 
This seems a small sum — say five hundred dol- 
lars — for three towns to pay. But it came in 
small installments, and a balance was never 
paid. 

Soon after his return from England Williams 
removed from Providence further down the 
eastern shore of Narragansett bay, some dis- 
tance below the settlement made by Gorton's 
company. He called the place by its hard In- 
dian name — Cawcawnqussick. It is now North 
Kingston, by which name we will know it. 
Here he established a trading-house, purchas- 
ing, in connection with it, a landed estate. Very 
likely a suit of clothes bought the land, and his 
own strong arm felled and hewed the trees of 
which the house was built. To have stocked 
his establishment with goods he must have had 
credit, for his poverty at this time is repeatedly 
stated. By special law he was permitted to 
suffer a native to kill fowl. He was also 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 195 

intrusted by law with a liquor agency. It was 
one of the first attempts to chain the alcohol 
demon. He was permitted " to sell a little 
wine or strong water to some natives in sick- 
ness." The terms of sale were stringent, it 
seems. It was only "a little," "in sickness," 
and to " some " only at that. But the law was 
very partial. It let alcohol loose on the White 
people, who have never been any better able to 
manage him than Indians. But, in reference 
to alcohol, our fathers only failed where we have 
constantly blundered. 

While in England, Williams became acquaint- 
ed with John Winthrop, Jr., son of Governor 
Winthrop, of Massachusetts. With the father 
Williams had always been in Christian inti- 
macy, though differing on questions of the 
times. The son was now Governor of Con- 
necticut, and is known in New England history 
only less than his distinguished father. The 
younger Winthrop was early known as a man 
of learning, genius, and integrity. Roger 
Williams' residence at North Kingston was re- 
lieved by a frequent correspondence with him, 
and, it would seem, an occasional exchange of 
visits. The letters which have been preserved 



196 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

range through a great variety of topics, many 
of them of only a local interest. We shall give 
so much of those of Williams as illustrates his 
tastes and principles. 

One under date of May, 1647, gives Winthrop, 
at his request, his correspondent's experience 
in the use of hay seed. It gives us a peep at 
the farming of the times, and shows that then, 
as now, it was a study. The same letter says, 
concerning Indian affairs, " reports are various ; 
Hes are frequent." We are not surprised at 
such a statement of " Indian affairs." It might 
have been preserved until the present time, 
and applied generally to those perplexed 
"affairs." Williams gives in close to the 
young Governor some advice, which is even 
better worth preserving. He says : " These 
things you may and must do: i. Kiss truth 
where you evidently upon your soul see it. 

2. Advance justice, though upon a child's eyes. 

3. Seek and make peace, if possible, with all 
men. 4, Secure your own life from a revenge- 
ful, malicious arrow or hatchet. I have been in 
danger of them, and delivered yet from them ; 
blessed be His holy name in whom I desire 
to be.' " 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 197 

Williams, in a letter a few months later, 
thanks Winthrop " for the sight of papers from 
England." The " news " which they contained 
was, no doubt, at least several months old. 
This was a long time to wait when a great na- 
tion — their fatherland — was being shaken to its 
foundation. Now Connecticut and Rhode Isl- 
and may know at noon what King William of 
Prussia did at sunrise before Paris. 

Mr. Williams, in one of his letters, refers to 
an incident connected with the Indian women. 
Many complaints had come to him from Con- 
necticut concerning the Indians, in reference 
to which he was acting in his established char- 
acter as peace-maker. One of these complaints 
was that the White women had become afraid 
of attacks from the Indians. A chief with whom 
Williams was conferring bid him tell Winthrop 
that the men of his tribe never did, and never 
would, meditate the least harm against Mrs. 
Winthrop or her neighbors ; and, still further, 
that the women of his town would send her a 
present of corn, if the Governor would appoint 
some one to receive it. 

The peculiar style of Mr. Williams and the 
characteristic turn of his religious feelings crop 



198 Foot-pinnts of Roger Williams. 

out in this correspondence. The following 
are examples : " The counsels of the Most High 
are deep concerning us poor grasshoppers, hop- 
ping and skipping from branch to twig in this 
vale of tears." — -" Our candle burns out day and 
night ; we need not hasten its end by swaling 
(melting and running down) in unnecessary 
miseries, unless God call us for him to suf- 
fer, whose our breath is, and who hath prom- 
ised to such as hate life for him, an eternal 
life." 

He commences one of his letters in the fol- 
lowing strain : " Best salutations presented to 
you both, with humble desires that since it 
pleaseth God to hinder your presence this way 
he may please, for his infinite mercy's sake, in 
his Son's blood, to further our eternal meeting 
in the presence of Him who sits upon the throne, 
and the Lamb forever ; and that the hope there- 
of may be living, and bring forth the fruits of 
love where it is possible, and of lamenting for 
obstructions." 

While these letters were passing from Will- 
iams to Winthrop, burdened often with efforts 
to conciliate him, and through him both the 
Connecticut and Massachusetts colonies, to- 



Foot-p}ints of Roger Williams. 199 

ward the Indians, he had at home his hands and 
heart full of the work of a peace-maker. 

In December, 1647, Williams and other prin- 
cipal men of the colony met to consult on the 
best method of harmonizing their difference. 
A paper was drawn up, evidently by Williams, 
suggesting the ways of seeking peace. It set 
forth the great blessing of the freedom they en- 
joyed, and that ingratitude for it was a just cause 
for its removal by God. It dwells upon the 
plots at home and abroad to destroy it. It 
makes devout allusion to " that mighty Provi- 
dence who had given them unexpected deliver- 
ances," and whose defense they might expect 
" through love, union, and order." They then 
enter into a covenant, first, in reference to past 
differences, and agree " that they will not men- 
tion nor repeat them in the assembly, but that 
love shall cover the multitude of them in the 
grave of oblivion." Second, they renewedly 
engage to be faithful to their past promises to. 
their town and colony, " abandoning all cause- 
less fears and jealousies of one another." Last- 
ly, they agree to debate calmly and kindly their 
difference concerning town and colony affairs 

when they are up for legal action ; to remember, 
13 



200 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

when they cannot think aUke, that " it is better 
to suffer an inconvenience than a mischief" — 
'' better to suffer the loss of some things than 
to be totally disunited and bereaved of all rights 
and liberties." 

This covenant was signed by eight leading 
men. It would have saved some painful pages 
of history if all the leaders had in good faith 
signed it. Soon after its date, Mr. Coddington, 
just elected President of the new colony, en- 
deavored to get the island of Rhode Island into 
the confederacy of the other colonies. He was 
told that the island would be admitted if it sub- 
mitted to the Plymouth colony, which had sent 
one of its magistrates there to demand such 
submission. The Court of Massachusetts about 
the same time claimed anew the towns on the 
Narragansett Bay below Providence, and then 
Connecticut stepped in with a claim a little 
further west. So " Little Rhody " was likely 
to grow beautifully less, and have a small show- 
ing indeed for its dearly-purchased chartered 
rights. 

While the contentions among brethren thus 
raged, Mr. Williams renews his conciliatory 
efforts. He wrote a letter to the town of Provi- 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 201 

dence, in which he expresses the feeUngs of a 
burdened heart in language full of tenderness 
and earnest entreaty to forbearance and love. 
He tells them " it is an honor for men to cease 
from strife," and that " the life of love is sweet, 
and union as strong as sweet." He further 
says : '' Since you have been lately pleased to 
call me to some public service, my soul hath 
been musing how I might bring water to quench, 
and not oil or fuel to feed the flame. I am now 
humbly bold to beseech you, by all those com- 
forts of earth and heaven which a placable and 
peaceful spirit will bring to you, and by those 
dreadful alarms and warnings, either amongst 
ourselves in deaths and sicknesses, or abroad 
in the raging calamities of the sword, death, 
and pestilence — I say humbly and earnestly 
beseech you to be willing to be pacifiable, will- 
ing to be reconcilable, willing to be sociable, 
and listen to the following, I hope not unreason- 
able, motions." He prefaces his "motion" by 
these pithy remarks : " To try out matters by 
disputes and writings is sometimes endless ; 
to try out arguments by arms and swords is 
cruel and merciless ; to trouble the State and 
Lords of England is most unreasonable, most 



202 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

chargeable ; to trouble our neighbors of other 
colonies seems neither safe nor honorable." 
He then suggests that all their differences 
be referred for final adjustment to a joint com- 
mittee from all the towns. 

This peace effort was well received, and Mr. 
Williams was put into a prominent position in 
carrying it out. Such words in such a spirit 
could not well fall to the ground. 

While thus trying to make his life valuable to 
others, it came near being suddenly brought to 
a close. He was going to his trading-house 
down the bay from Providence with a freight 
of goods in a borrowed canoe, his own not be- 
ing in repair. His canoe upset, a valuable part 
of his goods sunk, and he was " snatched by a 
merciful, some say a miraculous, hand from the 
jaws of death." 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 203 



CHAPTER XXI. 

IN LONDON, WATCHING AND WAITING. 

\T TE have glanced at the difficulties that 
^ ^ beset the position of the Rhode Island 
colony. The last development of them was 
Mr. Coddington's effort to connect the island 
with the government of Massachusetts. Hav- 
ing failed in this, he sailed with his daughter 
early in 1649 for England. It was not known 
by his fellow-citizens what project he had in 
view. On his arrival he found that the civil 
commotion had progressed to startling results. 
The King had been beheaded, and the country 
was being ruled by a Council of State. For a 
while the officers of Government were too busy 
with their own pressing concerns to listen to 
the request of the adventurer from the New 
World. But Coddington seems to have waited 
with watchful diligence, for in two years he ob- 
tained a hearing. He urged the modest request 
to have the island of Rhode Island and that of 
a small island near it committed to his hands ; 



204 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

at any rate, the result of his mission was au- 
thority to govern these islands during life, 
assisted by a Council of six men, to be named 
by the people, but subject to his approval or 
rejection. 

With this commission in his pocket he re- 
turned to the New World. Of course, the 
majority of the people rightly considered them- 
selves sold. The territory of the little colony 
was thus dismembered, and consternation suc- 
ceeded to confusion. The island towns, Ports- 
mouth and Newport, were soon astir. They 
appointed one of their foremost men, John 
Clarke, to go to England, and secure, if possible, 
the removal of the rule and government of 
Coddington. Providence and Warwick were 
also in commotion, and started a subscription 
to defray the expenses of an agent to accom- 
pany Clarke, to obtain the restoration of their 
charter as it was. Williams was entreated to 
accept this agency. But his impoverishing 
experience in foreign missions, and his large 
family, now consisting of his v/ife and six chil- 
dren, caused him to hesitate. Besides, his 
trading-house was yielding him an income of 
one hundred pounds a year. Five hundred 



' Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 205 

dollars in gold currency was no small sum for 
those times, and not to be readily relinquished 
for an uncertain public interest. But with his 
usual recklessness of his own affairs, when 
weighed against the common good, he sold his 
trading-house to support his family in his ab- 
sence, and sailed for England from Boston, with 
Mr. Clarke, November, 165 1. Having arrived 
in England, petitioning, watching and waiting 
became the wearisome duty of the agents. 
They were confronted with difficulties, needing 
the nerves of men accustomed to the dangers 
of the wilds of the western wilderness. En- 
gland had just plunged into a war with the 
Dutch, which absorbed for a while the attention 
of her rulers. Then the other New England 
colonies had agents and friends face to face 
with Williams and Clarke, opposing their re- 
quest. Even Williams' old and kind friend, 
Winslow, of Plymouth, was among this number. 
Each party had friends in Court which were 
played against the other. 

There were two men in England at this time 
occupying foremost places of influence, in whom 
Williams would necessarily feel much interest, 
and would be likely to decide the business in 



2o6 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

which he was engaged. They were Hugh Pe- 
ters and Sir Henry Vane. We met Vane as 
the Governor of Massachusetts, in the Hutchin- 
son controversy. The reader will recollect that 
it was by his influence mainly that Rhode 
Island obtained her charter. He had opposed 
the cause of the King, and was now, under the 
Council of State, the virtual head of the En- 
glish navy, and launching its thunders against 
his nation's enemies. Williams again found a 
frequent resting place in his family, and a pow- 
erful right arm in his great influence. 

His relation to Peters were of a friendly char- 
acter, and in one of his letters he speaks of 
being at his lordly mansion. Peters had been 
Williams' immediate successor in the Church 
at Salem after the latter had plunged into the 
wintry cold of the wilderness. He was after- 
ward one of the ministers of the " Great Meet- 
ing-House" in Boston, and trustee of Harvard 
College. He had, in the Hutchinson wordy 
fight, chided Vane publicly for disturbing the 
peace of the Churches. He was the Pastor of 
the Salem Church when Williams and his 
friends were excluded for their faith and prac- 
tice in reference to baptism. He was born the 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 207 

same year that Williams was, graduated at the 
same University, though at an earlier age, and 
had given his step-daughter in marriage to his 
friend and correspondent, Winthrop, of Con- 
necticut. Before Peters went to America he 
was one of the most popular and successful 
ministers of England. His biographer says : 
" It is a fact conceded by all parties that Peters 
converted many from sin to God, and governed 
the public mind as much as Whitefield and 
Wesley and other modern Methodists have 
done, both in America and Europe, and are 
doing." 

Peters himself says : " I believe above an 
hundred every v/eek were persuaded from sin 
to Christ ; there were six or seven thousand 
hearers." 

Peters had been compelled to leave this fruit- 
ful field of labor, and bury himself in the New 
England colonies, on account of his opposition 
to the King's ideas of ceremonies in worship. 
He had returned early in the parliamentary 
war against the King, and. was now a chief 
power in the Government. Though in New 
England he had given his voice for Williams' 
banishment, and advised that a letter of excom- 



2o8 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

munication be sent after him, he now grasped 
his hand in friendly sympathy, and declared to 
him that he was for liberty of conscience, and 
preached it.* 

It was with such old acquaintances as Wins- 
low, Vane, and Peters, that Williams was 
brought into intimacy in the discharge of the 
duties of his mission. 

Williams, though yet poor, and serving a poor 
if not indeed a neglectful constituency, did not 
depend upon these affluent friends. His industry 
and self-reliance were, as ever, apparent during 
his watching and waiting about Parliament. 
When under financial pressure in New England 
his strong hands and ready business capacity 
served his purpose. Now his excellent scholar- 
ship became available. He taught Hebrew, 
Greek, Latin, French, and Dutch, having for 
his pupils some of the sons of the Parliament 
men. He was intimately associated at the same 
time with John Milton, not yet author of Par- 
adise Lost, but now Secretary of the Council 
of State. Williams taught the Secretary Dutch, 
and was in return taught languages into which 

* Williams to John Cotton, of Plymouth. Proceedings of 
Mass. Hist. Society, 1855-1858, pp. 113-116. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 209 

he had not before delved. The two were in 
sympathy in poUtics, which was in those trying 
times some bond of union. 

Mr. WilHams, notwithstanding these engage- 
ments, kept his pen busily employed. We have 
anticipated in a previous chapter the continu- 
ance of his controversy with Cotton on religious 
liberty, and his engagements a part of the same 
time in the interest of the poor of London. 
In addition to the other works already men- 
tioned, written at this time, was a small treatise 
with the title, " The Hireling Ministry none of 
Christ's." It was aimed at the union of the 
Church and State, and the compelled support 
of Gospel ministers by taxation. But in it he 
ventilates freely his peculiar notions which had 
resulted in his standing apart from all Christian 
organizations. 

While Williams was thus waiting and work- 
ing, an incident occurred illustrative of his char- 
acter. From his lodgings in London he ad- 
dressed a letter to Mrs. Anne Sadlier, daughter 
of his patron, Sir Edward Coke, now deceased. 
He glances at his " mighty labors, mighty hazards, 
mighty sufferings," through which God had car- 
ried him " on eagles' wings." He excuses him- 



210 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

self from a call upon her at her seat at Stondon, 
because of "very great business, and very great 
straits of time," as he was then expecting to 
soon return to America. He then thus feel- 
ingly alludes to her father : " My much honored 
friend, that man of honor, and wisdom, and 
piety, your dear father, was often pleased to call 
me his son ; and truly it was as bitter as death 
to me when Bishop Laud pursued me out of 
this land, and my conscience was persuaded 
against the National Church and ceremonies 
and Bishop, beyond the conscience of your dear 
father. I say it was as bitter as death to me 
when I rode Windsor way, to take ship at Bris- 
tow, and saw Stoke House, where the blessed 
man was ; and I then durst not acquaint him 
with my conscience and my flight. But how 
many thousand times since have I had the 
honorable and precious remembrance of his 
person, and the life, the writings, the speeches, 
and the examples of that glorious light. And 
I may truly say that besides my natural inclina- 
tion to study and activity, his example, instruc- 
tion, and encouragement have spurred me on to 
a more than ordinary industrious and patient 
course in my whole life hitherto." 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 211 

Accompanying this letter was a copy of a 
tract on Experiments of Spiritual Health, 
which Williams had written while in the Amer- 
ican wilderness, and just published. The Lady 
Sadlier received the letter and book, and an- 
swered with dignified coolness that she had 
given over reading many books, and therefore 
returned his with thanks. She mentioned some 
of the old Church standards as her delight, and, 
as an offset to his remarks in favor of the radi- 
cal sentiments of the hour, added : " These 
lights shall be my guide ; I hope they may be 
yours ; for your new lights that are so much 
cried up I believe will in conclusion prove but 
dark lanterns ; therefore I dare not meddle 
with them." Williams, nothing daunted, wrote 
again, touching lightly on matters of contro- 
versy, and accompanying his letter with a copy 
of his " Bloody Tenet of Persecution for Cause 
of Conscience." The lady was shocked at the 
title and returned it unread, begging him not to 
trouble her with any more such books, and sub- 
scribed herself, " Your Friend, in the Old and 
Best Way." 

Williams writes again, and goes into a de- 
tailed, calm, and cogent argument for religious 



2 1 2 Foot-pi'ints of Roger Williams. 

liberty. She replies sharply, argues for the 
" old ways," for " the late King," " Charles, the 
martyr of ever blessed memory," and tells 
Williams that " none but such a villain " as 
himself would have made against him such 
" foul and false aspersions." She tells him that 
he has " a face of brass, and cannot blush." He 
had recommended to her a certain work on his 
side of the controversy, which she says she has 
read, and adds : " It and you would make a 
good fire." She closes by wishing him " in the 
place from whence he came." 

This spicy correspondence must have con- 
vinced Williams, if he needed such convincing, 
that to his doctrine of religious freedom he 
must expect as bitter opposition from old friends 
of the father-land as from the brethren in the 
colonies. 

After about one year's waiting Mr. Williams 
had the satisfaction of sendins; to his friends at 
home the good news that the Council had 
*' vacated" Coddington's commission, and di- 
rected the towns to unite under the charter as 
before. While these joyful tidings were yet on 
their way, the General Assembly met at Provi- 
dence, and voted a request to Williams to get 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 213 

himself appointed Governor of the colony for 
one year. This was officially forwarded to him, 
clothed in warm terms of commendation for his 
services, and accompanied by strong expressions 
of confidence that he would in that time com- 
mand the respect of the people to their govern- 
ment, and give them a good basis for future 
stability. But the people were not united in 
this nor in any other measure, and Williams 
had other and very burdensome work on hand. 
The interests of the colony, it was thought, re- 
quired the agents still to remain. This might 
be good for the people, but it was ruinous to 
their unpaid but faithful agents. Williams 
wrote to the towns of Providence and Warwick 
the next spring, a letter in which his full heart 
was poured forth in the following tender words : 
" You may please to put my soul's condition 
into your souls' cases ; remember I am a father 
and a husband. I have longed earnestly to re- 
turn with the last ship, and with these, and yet 
I am not willing to withdraw my shoulders from 
the burthen, lest it pinch others, and may fall 
heavy upon all, except you are pleased to give 
me a discharge. If you conceive it necessary 
for me still to attend to this service, pray you 



214 Foot- prints of Roger Williams. 

consider if it be not convenient that my poor 
wife be not encouraged to come over to me, and 
wait together on the pleasure of God for the end 
of this matter. You know how many weights 
hang on me, how my own place stands, and how 
many reasons I have to cause me to make haste ; 
yet I would not lose their estates, peace, and 
liberty by leaving hastily. I write to my dear 
wife my great desire of her coming while I 
stay, yet left it to the freedom of her spirit be- 
cause of the many dangers ; for truly at present 
the seas are dansferous." 

Another year passed away with Williams still 
in England, and dissensions raging in the col- 
ony at home. He felt that the family foes were 
becoming more dangerous than the foreign ones, 
and, leaving Mr. Clarke in England, he returned 
early in the summer of 1654. Provided with a 
pass from the Council of free transit at any 
time over Massachusetts territory, he landed at 
Boston, and was soon in the midst of his family 
and cordial friends. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 215 



CHAPTER XXII. 

WILLIAMS COLONIAL PRESIDENT. 

TT /"HEN Mr. Williams returned from En- 
• ^ gland he brought a letter of conciliation 
to the Rhode Island colony from Sir Henry 
Vane. It implored the people in the most 
earnest and Christian spirit to be reconciled to 
each other, and proceed at once to establish a 
government in the interest of all, under the 
charter just confirmed. This letter was by no 
means unnecessary. Williams' brave spirit was 
well-nigh crushed by these internal quarrels. 
He poured out his feelings in a letter to the 
citizens of Providence, in language of just re- 
buke and earnest entreaty. He reminded them 
of his own great sacrifices and labors to estab- 
lish for them and their children the broadest 
civil and religious liberty. He tenderly alludes 
to the unjust return he had received of poverty 
and reproach. He closes by proposing a plan 
of reconciliation. 

These letters were well received, and in Sep- 
14 



2i6 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

tember of the same year, 1654, the towns were 
once more united, a government was put in 
operation with WilHams at its head as President, 
and a flag was flung to the breeze with the 
word " Hope " added to the old device of an 
anchor. 

One of the first official acts of the new 
President was a long letter to the General 
Court of Massachusetts in behalf of the In- 
dians. A general war was imminent. But 
the cloud passed away to reassume at a later 
day its threatening aspect with much darker 
shadings. 

But peace in the political household was not 
yet conquered. An indiscreet reformer sent a 
paper to the town of Providence, in which he 
maintained " that it was blood-guiltiness and 
against the rule of the Gospel to execute judg- 
ment upon transgressors against the private or 
public weal." This wild and utterly disorgan- 
izing doctrine had, during Mr. Williams' career, 
been unjustly attributed to him. The present 
occasion was a favorable one to re-affirm his 
doctrine of " soul freedom," which he did in a 
letter to the town. It had " a certain sound," 
and was about as far ahead of that age as a 



Foot-prints of Roger Willimns. 2 1 / 

steamboat would have been puffing down Narra- 
gansett Bay for Manhattoes. In reference to the 
doctrine of the fanatic, above quoted, he says : 
" That ever I should write or speak a tittle that 
tends to such an infinite liberty of conscience 
is a mistake, and that which I have ever ab- 
horred. To prevent such mistakes, I shall only 
propose this case : There goes many a ship to 
sea, with many hundred souls in one ship whose 
weal and woe is common, and is a true picture 
of the commxonwealth. It hath fallen out some- 
times that both Papists and Protestants, Jews 
and Turks, may be embarked in one ship ; upon 
which supposal I affirm that all the liberty of 
conscience that ever I pleaded for turns upon 
these two hinges — that none of the Papists, 
Protestants, Jews, or Turks be forced to come 
to the ship's prayers or worship, nor compelled 
from their own particular prayers or worship, if 
they practice any. I further add that I never 
denied that, notwithstanding this liberty, the 
commander of this ship ought to command the 
ship's course, yea, and also command that jus- 
tice, peace, and sobriety be kept and practiced, 
both among the seamen and all the passengers. 
If any of the seamen refuse to perform their 



2i8 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

service, or passengers to pay their freight ; if 
any refuse to help in person or purse toward 
the common charge or defense ; if any refuse to 
obey the common laws of the ship ; if any shall 
mutiny and rise up against their officers, be- 
cause all are equal in Christ, and claim, there- 
fore, that there shall be no officers, nor laws, 
nor punishment — then, I say, the commander 
may judge, resist, compel, and punish such trans- 
gressors according to their deserts." 

But the ink was scarcely dry with which Mr. 
Williams wrote the above, before he was called 
to defend the true liberty for which he contend- 
ed against a most powerful opponent. This 
was William Harris, one of the few who accom- 
panied him from Seekonk in the canoe when a 
resting place was found at Providence. He 
had been Assistant Governor, and possessed 
great force of character and power to attach 
others to his person and opinions. About this 
time he raised the cry against " all earthly pow- 
ers, parliaments, law^s, magistrates, prisons, pun- 
ishments, and rates." He declared his convic- 
tions before the whole Colonial Assembly, and 
closed by avowing his determination to main- 
tain them, if needs be, with his blood. The 



Foot-prints of Rogei' Williams. 219 

Court, thinking this too much Hberty, appointed 
a committee '' to deal with him." Soon after a 
law was passed which provided for the handing 
over, at their own expense, persons propagating 
such sentiments, to his Highness Cromwell, 
and to the Lords of the Council. This law 
seemed for the time to have a wonderfully con- 
vincing power, and Harris soon after " cried up 
government and magistrates as much as he had 
cried them down before." But between Will- 
iams and this old friend there sprang up an 
animosity which will have a painful develop- 
ment in the course of our narrative. 

The relations of Massachusetts to Rhode 
Island engaged, of course, much of President 
Williams' officifil attention. Late in 1655 he 
wrote a calm but plain and earnest letter to its 
General Court. He says that Pawtuxet and 
Warwick defied the laws of Rhode Island be- 
cause Massachusetts claimed them as theirs, 
and that, between two authorities and obeying 
none, the English and Indians of these towns 
had become the abhorrence of God and men. 
In view of this state of things he generously 
declares that " if not only they, but ourselves 
and the whole country, by joint consent, were 



220 Foot-pi'ints of Roger Williams. 

subject to your government, it might be a rich 
mercy." " Yet as things are," he continues, he 
desires them to consider whether it is well, by 
persisting in a claim upon these towns, for 
Massachusetts " to be the obstructors of all or- 
derly proceedings " among their people. 

He next touches upon even a more serious 
matter. It seems that the Rhode Island colony 
were not allowed to procure arms and ammuni- 
tion from Boston. They had been put, in this- 
respect, on the same footing with the Indians. 
Mr. Clarke, who still remained in England, had, 
in the summer, sent over four barrels of pow- 
der and eight of shot and bullets. But this was 
a long distance to send in an emergency when 
the merchants of Boston had Enough to sell. 
The Dutch and lawless Englishmen were sup- 
plying the Indians with guns, powder, and shot, 
and " strong water." The guns gave them the 
means, and the " strong water " the disposition, 
to drench the land in blood. They grew daily 
more insolent, and, knowing that the Rhode 
Islanders were discarded by the other colonies, 
threatened to make them their slaves. 

Williams holds this subject up in his letter 
to the Boston Court in glowing language. He 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 221 

tells them that even Indians, though " notorious 
in lies," can buy powder and guns of them if 
they only profess subjection, "while ourselves 
only are devoted to the Indian shambles and 
massacres." He grieves that so much blood 
may cry against them in the exposed condition 
of the men and their families in the Narragan- 
sett country, " who may be destroyed like fools 
and beasts without resistance." 

Even Winthrop, of Boston, wrote in his jour- 
nal that it was " an error in State policy " thus 
to deny Rhode Island. He puts it upon the 
ground that " if the Indians should ^ prevail 
against them, it would be a great advantage to 
the Indians, and danger to the whole coun- 
try." 

Williams closes his letter with a postscript 
which, though penned in a quiet way, ought to 
have made the ears of the Court tingle. He 
reminds them that in his return from England 
through Boston he handed to their Governor 
an order from the Lords of the Council for his 
unmolested departure. Now, he adds, " I hum- 
bly crave the recording of it by yourselves, lest 
forgetfulness hereafter again put me upon such 
distresses as God knows I suffered when I 



222 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

last passed through your colony to our native 
country." 

While thus conciliating his neighbors with 
Christian words, Williams was benefiting them 
with kindly deeds. He writes to Governor 
Winthrop, of Connecticut, that Mexham, an 
Indian chief of the Governor's region, had sent 
to Providence for its President's mediation. 
Uncas' son, Winthrop's ally, had stolen a gun 
from one of Mexham' s subjects. The affair, 
though small, had the seeds of an Indian fight 
in it, and so Williams begs the Governor to put 
upon it "his loving eye, as God should give 
him opportunity." While thus listening to In- 
dian complaints from Connecticut, there comes 
a " hue and cry " from the Governor at Boston 
concerning two runaway boys. One of them 
the President caught and sent back to his home, 
and sent after the other, who had passed through 
Providence. 

Mr. Williams' letter to the General Court at 
Boston not securing a change in its policy 
pleasing to Rhode Island, he wrote to Endicott, 
then Governor, who invited him to come to 
Boston. His next letter to the Court has the 
surprising date of Boston. He is plainly not 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 223 

suffering the " distresses " inflicted on his way 
to England. It breathes a gratified spirit, 
and, in reference to the Indian affairs of which 
he writes, says : " I do cordially promise for 
myself, and all I can persuade, to study grati- 
tude and faithfulness to your service." 




224 Foot-prints of Roger Williams, 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

A T E R R I B L E COLLISION. 

WILLIAMS was President of Rhode Isl- 
and colony two years, his last official term 
ending in May, 1657. It had included convul- 
sions at home and threatening gales from the 
neighboring colonies. We have noticed briefly 
the home troubles, and we must glance at the 
breezes from without in order to appreciate his 
persistent efforts for peace with all, and his con- 
sistent maintenance of his principles of religious 
liberty. 

The famous New England Quaker troubles 
began in Boston in 4656. Their coming had 
been anticipated, for rumor had flown across 
the waters, and, with her customary perversions, 
filled the people's .minds with fears concerning 
them. Old Canonicus was not seized with 
greater consternation when he received from 
the Pilgrims the plague, as he supposed, tied up 
in a snake skin containing gunpowder, than were 
the Massachusetts authorities when they learned 



Foot-prill Is of Roger Williams. 225 

that a vessel had arrived in port with two Quak- 
er women. The arrival found the colony fasting 
and praying that they might be spared the 
visitation of the pestilential heresy which such 
persons propagated. Believing in acting as 
well as fasting and prayer, they imprisoned 
the women until the vessel sailed, and then re- 
turned them whence they came. The General 
Court were accustomed to the banishment of 
heretics, and their experience gave them confi- 
dence in this method of getting rid of them. 
But they had to deal with opposers of different 
stuff from any with whom they had heretofore 
come in contact ; yet the Puritans proved sadly 
equal to the occasion. The prudent and saga- 
cious Winthrop had gone to the rest of the good. 
The Rev. John Cotton, who, if not always wise 
in such matters, was not rash and stubborn, 
had exchanged his labors for the crown. John 
Endicott was Governor, at whose right hand, 
as Deputy-Governor, was Bellingham. John 
Norton was occupying, as teacher. Cotton's 
pulpit. It is said that the *' temper " of the 
three men was " unfortunate." It is certain 
that the temper of those they opposed was un- 
fortunate. The stern and honest, though, as 



226 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

all believe now, grievously mistaken, sense of 
official duty, met the wildest religious fanati- 
cism. The fight could but be serious, and the 
result, for a while, doubtful. The Quakers were 
whipped, and gloried in it. They were brought 
before the Courts, and availed themselves of the 
opportunity to denounce against the judges the 
judgments of God. A few of them had an ear 
clipped, and rejoiced in the mark of suffering 
for Christ's sake. They were banished, but re- 
turned — some were several times banished, but 
as often returned — though threatened with 
death. The magistrates threatened death, per- 
haps, hoping that the threat, as with other 
heretics, would prevent the occasion of the pen- 
alty ; and the Quakers, it may be, believed that 
the Puritans dare not inflict that sentence. If 
so, neither knew the temper of the other. 
When the terrible trial of persistency came, 
neither would give way, for both thought they 
were doing God service, and several Quakers 
were hung. 

These harsh proceedings met with much 
popular opposition. The people generally mur- 
mured. The poet,* catching the spirit of 
* New Endand Tracfedies — Longfellow. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 227 

Norton's character, as he urges Endicott to 
firmness in his bloody work, makes him say : 

" Then let them murmur ! 
Truth is resistless; justice never wavers; 
The greatest firmness is the greatest mercy; 
The noble order of the magistracy- 
Is by these heretics despised and outraged." 

" My predecessor 
Coped only with the milder heresies 
Of Antinomians and Anabaptists. 

* * And, as he lay 

On his death-bed, he saw me in his vision 
Ride on a snow-white horse into this tovm. 
His vision was prophetic ; thus I came ; 
A terror to the impenitent, and Death 
On the pale horse of the Apocalypse 
To all the accursed race of heretics." 

The hated and dreaded sect became, of course, 
more numerous and more fanatical under the 
goad and halter of the civil power. Men and 
women, on hearing what was done in Massachu- 
setts to the Quakers, came from England and 
other far countries, and from the Rhode Island 
colony even, seeking the martyr's crown. From 
among its own citizens, too, aspirants arose for 
the same honor. Scourging and death proved, 
as they have often done, the promoters of 
heresy ; the magistrates were brought to a 
pause, and the Quaker pertinacity triumphed. 



228 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

The Courts learned, with regard to reUgious 
error, 

" That every flame is a loud tongue of fire 
To publish it abroad to all the world 
Louder than tongues of men." 

Longfellow, in describing still further these 
Tragedies, very naturally represents Governor 
Endicott as regretting the part he took in them, 
and as claiming at the same time that the 
Quakers shared, at least, the responsibility for 
their sufferings. He makes him say to Bel- 
lingham : 

" Speak no more. 
For as I listen to your voice, it seems 
As if the seven Thunders uttered their voices, 
And the dead bodies lay about the streets 
Of the disconsolate city ! Bellingham, 
I did not put those wretched men to death. 
I did but guard the passage with the sword 
Pointed toward them, and they rushed upon it ! 
Yet now I would that I had taken no part 
In all that bloody work." 

The Commissioners of the United Colonies 
recommended to each of their Courts severe 
laws against the Quakers, and all were to some 
extent drawn into the attempt to rid their ter- 
ritory of them through the civil arm. But 
Massachusetts alone proceeded to extreme 
measures. 



Foot-print s of Roger Williams. 229 

The relation of this sad contention, profess- 
edly in the interests of religion, to Roger Will- 
liams and his colony, may readily be seen. It 
was in violation of the principle for which he 
contended, and upon which the Rhode Island 
government was founded. The example of its 
people was a standing rebuke to the other colo- 
nies, and the quiet nestling in the Narragan- 
sett towns of all the heresiarchs was a perpet- 
ual annoyance. Those who fled from the fiery 
ordeal at Boston and elsewhere found a safe 
refuge in Rhode Island so long as they did not 
offend in civil things. 

When the prosecutions of the Quakers in the 
other colonies had become an established poli- 
cy, the Commissioners assembled at Boston 
wrote to the Court at Providence urging them 
to banish all Quakers from their territory, and 
to forbid the coming of others. The Rhode 
Island Court, with Williams still at its head, 
returned in IMarch, 1657, a decisive answer. 
They say in eftect that freedom in religious 
things is the corner-stone of their civil conir- 
pact ; that it was " the principal ground of their 
charter," and " the greatest happiness that men 
can enjoy in this world." 



230 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

The Commissioners urged their request again 
in the autumn, and in stronger terms. The re- 
ply of Rhode Island, re-affirming its position, 
contains some significant passages bearing upon 
the questions of religious liberty. The facts 
alone which they contain should have made the 
Commissioners change their mode of dealing 
with the Quakers. The following are some of 
the passages : " We find that in those places 
where these people, the Quakers, in this colony 
are most of all suffered to declare themselves 
freely, and are only opposed by arguments in 
discourse, there they least of all desire to come ; 
and, we are informed, they begin to loathe this 
place, for that they are not opposed by the 
civil authority, but with all meekness and 
patience are suffered to say over their pre- 
tended revelations and admonitions ; nor are 
they like to gain many here to their way. We 
find that they delight to be persecuted by the 
civil powers, and when they are so, they 
gain more by the conceit of their patient suf- 
fering than by consent to their pernicious 
sayings." 

This reply did not suit the Commissioners. 
They proceeded to demand of Rhode Island the 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 231 

required laws against the Quakers, under the 
penalty of non-intercourse on the part of the 
other colonies. The lone colony remained firm, 
and appealed for support in her position to 
Cromwell and his Honorable Council, through 
their agent Mr. Clarke, still in England. 

But a great crisis was approaching in the 
affairs of the Mother Country. Cromwell died 
in the autumn in which the letter to Mr. Clarke 
was written. His son Richard, who succeeded 
him, possessed neither the talents nor ambition 
of his father, and the reins of government soon 
slipped from his hands. In 1660 royalty was 
restored in the person of Charles H. He im- 
mediately commanded the colonies to refrain 
from severe inflictions upon the Quakers, and 
to send them, when offending against the laws, 
to England for trial. This measure, so far as 
penalties of death, whipping, and mutilations 
of the offenders were concerned, agreed with 
the growing public sentiment of Massachusetts, 
as well as elsewhere, and was hailed with joy. 
Fanaticism ventilated itself for a while through 
its newly acquired freedom in gross improprie- 
ties against nature and common sense, and then 

the " Quakers " subsided into the useful and 
15 



232 Foot-prhits of Roger Williams. 

honored Christian body of Friends as they 
exist at the present time. The principles of 
Roger WilHams had triumphed. The " Hope " 
of Rhode Island grew brighter, and her " An- 
chor " clung steadily to her sure foundation. 






Foot-prhits of Roger Williams. 233 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

VARIOUS MATTERS. 

T T THILE the Quaker conflict was going on 
^ ^ around him, WilUams had less serious 
but truly annoying contentions nearer home. 
The boundary dispute, an always present one 
with his colony, was pressed upon him with bit- 
ter personalities. It will be recollected that he 
had purchased in his own name, and as his own 
property, the land which had become the Provi- 
dence Plantations. His deed granted him not 
only these lands in complete ownership, but 
certain privileges of pasturage for his cattle 
along the streams beyond them. But some of 
those who had taken and now owned plantations 
upon these lands claimed in clear ownership 
these pasture-lands too. Among the leaders in 
this unwarrantable claim was William Harris, 
the able and persistent foe of Williams. Keenly 
alive, in neighborhood as well as State matters, 
toward Indians as well as toward Whites, to 
strict equity, Williams denounced this claim as 



234 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

going beyond the deed and wronging the na- 
tives. Harris to compass his end wrote out 
another deed, much in the style of the one 
given to WilUams by old Canonicus and Mian- 
tonomo, but making it express in explicit terms 
his interpretation of the first one. To this he 
obtained the signatures of the relatives, the 
successors in office, of those old Chiefs. It was 
a sharp practice, worthy of the tricksters in 
business matters of the present age, for, as Will- 
iams declared, these later owners did not under- 
stand what the import of the deed was which 
they signed. Williams reproved the parties 
concerned, and they replied : " Who is Roger 
Williavis f We know the Indians as well as 
he. We will trust Roger Williams no longer. 
We will have our bounds confirmed us under 
the Sachems' hands." 

Williams adds sadly : " I laid myself down as 
a stone in the dust for these after-comers to 
step upon, and now they say, 'Who is Roger 
Williams.?'" 

We gladly turn from these unkindnesses to 
a letter written about this time, the autumn of 
1660, by Williams to his valued friend, Governor 
Winthrop, of Connecticut. The first line shows 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 235 

that the writer was not so far ahead of the aire 
in temperance matters as he was on the ques- 
tion of rehgious liberty. He writes : " Your 
loving Hnes in this cold, dead season were as a 
cup of your Connecticut cider, or of that west- 
ern metheglin which you and I have drunk at 
Bristol together." The cider would do if it was 
just from the press ; but we trust the Gov- 
ernor's " loving lines " were better to the bur- 
dened heart of his friend than the Bristol 
" metheghn." 

There is a reference in this letter to a com- 
plaint made by Winthrop in his of the old 
Sachem Uncas, the conqueror of the unfortu- 
nate Miantonomo ; he hints at a purpose of ban- 
ishing him and his brother to Long Island. 
Williams hails the purpose with joy as likely 
to give " a truce for some good term of years " 
to Indian hostility in that quarter. But he adds 
with characteristic emphasis : *' How should we 
expect the streams of blood to stop among the 
dregs of mankind, when the bloody issues flow 
so fresh and fearfully among the finest and most 
refined sons of men and sons of God ! " He 
then alludes tenderly to the sad events of the 
Old World, and the death of Winthrop's step- 



236 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

father, Hugh Peters. Peters' history, so far as 
it crossed that of WilHams, we have sketched. 
He had a few months previous to this died upon 
the scaffold for his part in the State aftairs 
under Cromwell. His last moments were those 
of Christian triumph. He had, it will be recol- 
lected, become Williams' congenial friend, hav- 
ing adopted his views of religious freedom. 
Another of Williams' friends, Sir Henry Vane, 
died two years later, by the hand of the public 
executioner. Well might Williams say, then, in 
reference to such times, that " the streams 
of blood " should cease among the Whites 
before they could among the Indians. His 
closing words are worthy of his head and heart : 
*' The Lord graciously help us to shine in light 
and love universal, to all that fear his name, 
without the monopoly of the affection to those 
of our own persuasion only." 

In a letter at a little later date, after referring 
again to the civil commotions in the mother 
country, and their dreaded consequences to the 
colonies, he says : ** You know well, sir, that 
the first entertainment of a storm at sea is, 
Down with the top-sails ! The Lord mercifully 
help us to lower, and make us truly more and 



Foot-prints of Roger VVilliams. 237 

more low, humble, contented, and thankful for 
the least crumbs of mercy." 

Williams did not turn to his correspondence 
with Winthrop for all the outer comfort that 
this period afforded. His faithful friend, and 
the faithful, able friend of Rhode Island, John 
Clarke, had succeeded in obtaining a charter 
for the colony from Charles II. It arrived at 
Newport in November, 1663. The people were 
jubilant, for the new rulers in England would not 
feel bound by that given them under Cromwell. 
It was truly a remarkable State constitution for 
those times. In petitioning for it through Mr. 
Clarke, the Rhode Island people had said to 
the King that it was " Much on their hearts to 
hold forth a lively experiment that a most flour- 
ishing civil State may stand, and best be main- 
tained, and that among the English subjects, 
with a full liberty in religious concernments." 

In accordance with this request, the following 
clause was put into the charter : " No person in 
said colony at any time hereafter shall be any 
wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called 
in question for any differences in opinion in 
matters of religion, who do not actually disturb 
the civil peace in said colony." 



238 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

Thus, with all damages repaired from the late 
political storm which blew across the Atlantic, 
the ship whose keel Williams had laid com- 
menced a new career. Her planks were of the 
old substantial material. Her flag bore the same 
motto as when first thrown to the breeze — " Full 
liberty in religious concernments," Among her 
officers for the new voyage was Roger Williams, 
enrolled as an assistant. 

It has been said by high authority, and with 
seeming truth, that the first thing this new craft 
did, with her boasting flag flying at her mast- 
head, was to pour a broadside into the Roman 
Catholics, Beautiful consistency ! say her ac- 
cusers. Where was Roger Williams about that 
time t asks one. We don't hear that he made 
any objection ! exclaims another. 

The shot which her guns are said to contain 
was this : " All men among us shall have free- 
dom of conscience, Roman Catholics only ex- 
ceptedr Her records have been carefully exam- 
ined, and the law of freedom in religious things 
stands upon them with no such clause. But it 
is found that a committee appointed to revise 
them, at some time later than 1719, thirty years 
at least after Williams was dead, put the clause 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 239 

into the printed copy without authority. The 
ship never fired a gun at Roman CathoHcs, and 
was never ordered to do so. 

But, continue her accusers, this ship did 
once, with Roger WilHams among her officers, 
fire at the Quakers. No, it is replied ; she did, 
however, in 1665, fire at all persons among her 
citizens who refused to take the oath of alle- 
giance to Charles II., which he commanded all 
to take, and some Quakers were hit. But the 
very next Court so framed the oath that the 
Quaker conscience was satisfied in taking it, 
and they were hit no more. * 

But Roger Williams was assailed in his day 
with accusations of an opposite character. He 
says : " We suffer for their sakes, and are ac- 
counted their abettors." His enemies declared, 
in effect : " You take Quakers into your colony, 
allow them to believe what they please, and 
you even admit them into your social circles in 
friendly intercourse ; you are, therefore, a be- 
liever in Quakerism." This inference wounded 
Williams. It ought not to have wounded him, 
for what unreasonable thing will not peojole say 
in excited controversy } He should have waited 
patiently, as he did with regard to most other 



240 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

accusations, and let time blow away the dust 
and show the real facts. But with a weakness 
truly human he assailed the Quakers to prove 
his own Orthodoxy. We do not mean that he 
struck them with his fist, nor that he stirred up 
the mob to drive them out of town. He did in 
the case no wicked, but, as we think, a very un- 
wise thing. He challenged their leaders to a 
public debate. Now who ever knew such a de- 
bate on religious questions in which there was 
not more bitterness awakened than conviction 
in favor of truth produced ! George Fox, the 
father of J:he people called Quakers, was then 
at Newport, with other able men of the same 
belief Williams drew up a paper denouncing 
Quakerism in fourteen propositions. He sent 
them to Fox for public debate. The challenge 
did not reach Fox until after he had left the 
country. Thinking he had run away to avoid 
debate, Williams exclaims : '' The Fox has slyly 
departed." But, if so, he left able friends who 
accepted the challenge. The place agreed upon 
was the Quaker meeting-house at Newport. 
Williams, though seventy-three years of age, 
rowed a boat from Providence to Newport — 
thirty miles — in July, in order to engage in the 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 24 1 

combat. He arrived there at midnight, before 
the morning of the meeting, weary and sick. 
He opened the debate with a few concihatory 
remarks, disclaiming unkind feeHng toward 
those he opposed, and disowning pride or vanity 
in the challenge, but claiming a desire to fur- 
ther the truth and honor God. We may allow 
the purity of his motives. There was no mod- 
erator. A crowd had gathered, of course, to 
witness the contest. Williams was opposed by 
three men, two of whom, he allowed, were able 
and fair debaters. The other, he says, was a 
wrangler, and, of course, this one had the most 
to say. The debate went on for three days, 
seven points were discussed, and the meeting 
adjourned to Providence, Here it was contin- 
ued one day, and then broke up. 

The ' immediate results of this affair were 
great physical prostration on the part of Will- 
iams, and a seven days' buzzing in the colony 
on the merits of the questions and parties con- 
cerned. One of the more remote results was 
a large printed volume by Williams, entitled 
''George Fox digged out of his Burrowes." 
The title is a pun on the names of his oppo- 
nents. Burroughs was a friend of Fox. The 



242 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

two. had jointly written a book on their opin- 
ions. Fox and Biirnyeat — the latter one of the 
debaters — wrote a reply, entitled, "The New 
England Fire-brand Quenched." Williams' 
friends allow that he appears less favorably as 
a Christian in this book against the Quakers 
than in any other he wrote. The answer to 
him is said to be " coarse and bitter." 




J. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams, 243 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE WAR-PATH. 

THOUGH Williams was now at that age 
of life which disposes to retirement and 
quiet, yet one more terrific commotion went on 
under his eyes. We have seen intimations in 
his letters to Governor Winthrop, of Connecti- 
cut, that he was alarmed at the bearing of the 
Indians toward the English. He wished Uncas 
sent to Long Island. He earnestly studied 
with them the things which made for peace. 
He had been a mediator between his brethren 
and the Red Men for forty years. He must 
have felt the necessity a painful one to take the 
sword at last against these wild men whom he 
had sought to tame by the Gospel of Christ. 
But he had this consolation, that the war spirit 
which was now spreading over all New England 
had not been provoked by himself personally, 
nor through the indirect influence of a policy 
he had advocated. If war came to his cabin 
door, compelling him to bring his gun to bear 



244 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

upon the savage foe to save his own and his 
children's Hves, that foe came not to avenge 
wrongs he had inflicted. 

Two facts of prominence in the war of which 
we are about to speak must have made it espe- 
cially painful to Roger Williams. They were 
these : The tribes most deeply involved in it 
were the Wampanoags and Narragansetts — the 
people of his old friends Massasoit, Sachem of 
the former, and Canonicus and Miantonomo, 
Sachems of the latter. From these people and 
their departed Chiefs he had, in the times of his 
necessities, when his own had cast him out, re- 
ceived home and country. The second fact 
was that the two most powerful leaders against 
the Whites were the sons of these old friends. 
Metacomet, or Philip, as the English called 
him, was the second son of Massasoit ; and 
Canonchet, of the Narragansetts, was son of 
Miantonomo. Williams must have seen and 
known well these Chiefs when they were chil- 
dren in their fathers' wigwams. Upon their 
heads, doubtless, he had laid his hands, and 
given them his Christian blessings. He had 
spoken in their hearing the great truths of the 
Gospel, and hoped for their salvation. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 245 

We shall notice the facts of this war — King 
Philip's War, as it is called — only briefly, and 
mainly as it was connected immediately with 
Williams and with these two noted friends 
of his. 

The indirect cause, or one of the principal 
prompters, of this war, is generally thought 
to be the treatment which Wamsutta, Phil- 
ip's older brother, received at the hands of 
the Plymouth colony. Massasoit died early in 
1662. Wamsutta succeeded his father in the 
chieftainship of the tribe, and died in a few 
months. Two eminent historians of his day 
attribute his death to harsh treatment from 
the Plymouth authorities. This an eminent 
Plymouth contemporary denied. We cannot 
tell certainly the exact facts, but it seems that 
Philip thought the forty years of his father's 
faithful adherence to the Whites, and his broth- 
er's endeavor to walk in his parent's steps in 
this respect, were poorly requited by the pale 
faces. Besides, Weetamoo, the widow of Wam- 
sutta, and a daughter of a neighboring chief, a 
woman of strong will and great influence, in- 
sisted that the English had poisoned her hus- 
band. Her influence over Philip is thought to 



246 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

have been potent The bearing of Philip was 
independent, and to the Plymouth men he 
seemed haughty and rebellious. Their tempers 
were evidently not congenial. He was watched 
closely, and brought to an account for his con- 
duct much oftener than suited his royal humor. 
In 1667 he was summoned to answer to a charge 
of wishing to join the Dutch and French against 
the English. He protested his innocence, and 
readily gave up his fire-arms as a guarantee of 
good will. So well convinced were the Court of 
his sincerity that at their next session they re- 
stored his guns. Four years passed away, and 
Plymouth was again alarmed. A meeting was 
held at Taunton between Philip and his chief 
men and his complainants, before three Boston 
men as umpires. All the decisions went against 
Philip. He made confessions, renewed old 
treaties, and gave up his guns. These were 
not returned this time, but a short time after 
the Court at Plymouth distributed them among 
the towns. For several years Philip had been 
required to pay a moneyed tax, and also one of 
" wolves' heads," as an offset to the expense at- 
tending the troubles he was accused of making. 
It is a fact worth noting that Gookin, the super- 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 247 

intendent of the religious instruction of the In- 
dians at this time, resented this treatment by 
Plymouth of Philip. Gookin was a man of 
some prominence, and then lived at Cambridge. 
He wrote some sharp letters to the Governor 
of Plymouth, telling him that his people too 
severely pressed the Indians. The Governor 
retorted that Gookin, as a missionary to the 
Indians, countenanced them in being trouble- 
some. So it seems that the English settlers of 
those days were not agreed in these measures 
with Philip. 

A few months later Plymouth again sum- 
moned Philip to answer for renewed short-com- 
ings. Instead of going to that place he went 
to Boston and complained of these interfer- 
ences. The excellence of his cause, or the 
eloquence of his tongue, or both, obtained for 
him a favorable hearing with certain influential 
persons, who, after correspondence with Plym- 
outh, went there, accompanied by Philip and his 
counselors, to bring about a reconciliation. As 
usual, the savage was found to blame, and more 
humiliation on his part was the penalty. But 
it was plainly a constrained humility. The sav- 
age in the Chieftain was getting the mastery of 
16 



248 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

prudence, but still he kept up tolerably fair ap- 
pearances for three years longer. It has been 
thought that they were years of diligent prep- 
aration, and far-reaching plans to exterminate 
the Whites. He has been credited with com- 
prehending the sacred rights of himself and 
people in their soil, their country, and their 
homes, and with seeing that now, while the 
strangers were few and the Indians many, was 
the time to strike a decisive blow for freedom. 
The Narragansetts, the ancient enemies of his 
people, had been brought into more friendly 
relations by their mutual connection with Roger 
Wilhams. The Indians had possessed them- 
selves of fire-arms, and become expert in their 
use. The chafed spirit of the haughty Chief 
grew hot as he saw the means of independence 
and revenge within his reach. Just before the 
war broke out, the Governor of Massachusetts 
sent a messenger to him to demand why he 
purposed to make war upon the English. Philip 
replied proudly : " Your Governor is but a sub- 
ject of King Charles, of England. I shall not 
treat with a subject. I shall treat of peace 
only with the King, my brother. When he 
comes I am ready." 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 249 

All now, 1674, saw the war cloud hanging 
over them, and watched anxiously for the place 
and manner of its first shower of blood. They 
did not wait long. In the latter part of that 
year Sassamon, a friendly Indian, informed 
Plymouth that Philip was entertaining strange 
Indians, and binding into treaties against the 
English all the tribes. Sassamon was a way- 
ward subject of the educational and religious 
privileges of Cambridge College. He had been 
a school-master at Natick, then a secretary to 
Philip, and, later, a preacher of the Gospel. 
The Sachem went to Plymouth, denied the 
charges, returned home, and soon after Sassa- 
mon was murdered. The Plymouth Court 
arrested, tried, convicted, and put to death three 
of Philip's subjects on the charge of murdering 
Sassamon. Philip intended another year's prep- 
aration, but he could not restrain his young 
men. The first flash from the darkened sky 
fell at Swanzey on a Fast day, and English blood 
was shed. It was said that Philip wept on 
hearing the fact, for the Indians believed that 
the party in the fight who shed the first blood 
would be defeated. But the die was cast. The 
Indian war whoop startled the midnight slum- 



250 Foot-prints of Rogei' Williams. 

bers of the colonists in every direction, and the 
gun, scalping-knife, and flames did their horrid 
work. Of course, the colonists were soon astir, 
and the White and Red man were matched in 
reckless bravery and relentless cruelty. The 
deeds that were done on the Indian side are 
recorded in history in the name of Philip. It 
is said that Philip surprised such a party of his 
enemies, and burned this and that town through 
a wide extent of country. Yet it is a singular 
fact that he was seldom seen in battle, nor could 
his place of personal operations be often ascer- 
tained with certainty. It was then believed, and 
is generally credited now, that his master-nrnd 
pervaded all the movements of the savage foes. 
Rhode Island was not immediately drawn into 
the conflict. She had been at peace with the 
natives. But as the war raged her territory 
was invaded, and her people were killed. Roger 
Williams wrote early in the conflict to the Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, giving prompt informa- 
tion of the movements of the enemy. By his 
promptings Providence made some efforts at 
fortifying the town. He accepted in his old 
age a captain's commission, drew his sword, 
and drilled the young recruits. W 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 251 

The Indians. received their first serious blow 
in December, 1675. Phihp, with the flower of 
his army, had gone into winter-quarters on the 
western shore of the Narragansett Bay, at what 
is now South Kingston. He had selected an 
island in the midst of a swamp and strongly 
fortified it. But the colonists under General 
Winslow, of Plymouth, took the fort after the 
most desperate fighting on both sides. The 
loss of life was very great, and the sufferings 
and deaths from the cold and winter exposures 
were shocking. It is not certain that Philip 
was at this fight, though the presence of a 
superior mind was apparent. Some give the 
credit, in part at least, of the brave defense of 
the fort to Canonchet, the Narragansett Sa- 
chem. Let us turn our attention for a moment 
to his movements. 

The Indians at the bloody fight in December 
were defeated but not beaten. They left 
during the winter their bloody footsteps at 
Lancaster, Mendon, and Weymouth, startling 
the Bostonians by their audacity and success. 
They appeared in Rhode Island, and boldly 
desolated the English settlements from the Nar- 
ragansett Bay to New London. To divert them 



2 '5 2 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

from ravages quite too near them, the Plymouth 
authorities sent out Captain Peirce, of Scituate, 
with fifty EngUshmen and twenty friendly In- 
dians. He marched to a place on the Paw- 
tucket, now the Blackstone river, about seven 
miles above Providence. Canonchet was there 
with about three hundred warriors. He was 
on his way to the Plymouth towns. He had 
become aware of Peirce's approach, and laid a 
snare for him into which he most unfortunately 
marched. 

Seeing a party of Indians fleeing across the 
river, as he supposed to escape him, he gave 
chase. When his men reached the opposite, or 
western side, Canonchet and his men rushed 
upon them with great fury. Seeing themselves 
outnumbered and likely to be overpowered, 
Peirce's men turned their faces to recross the 
river. But up started on the eastern side an 
ambushment of Canonchet's forces, placed there 
to cut off their retreat. Thus hemmed in, the brave 
Captain arranged his men in two ranks, back 
to back, and sold their lives as dearly as pos- 
sible. Only one White man escaped, and this 
was effected in a singular way by the keen wit 
of one of the friendly Indians. Seeing the 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 253 

Englishman running, and knowing that he 
would be overtaken if pursued, he raised his 
tomahawk and gave chase. He was mistaken 
for a Narragansett, and honorably left to the 
capture of his supposed foe. 

One of the friendly Indians escaped in an 
equally cunning manner. Being sorely pressed 
by an armed, swift-footed Narragansett, he 
slipped behind a rock. Each was now prepared 
for the other with a loaded gun. The pursuer 
waited for the skulker to leave his hiding-place, 
ready to send a ball through him as soon as 
seen. Thus the case stood when the man be- 
hind the rock slowly raised his cap, placed on 
the end of his gun, above the top of the rock. 
Whiz, came a bullet through the innocent cap, 
and away flew its owner before the cheated 
Narragansett could reload ! 

Canonchet's victory was complete. But his 
success, as it has often been with the world's 
greatest commanders, proved his ruin. He 
encamped near the battle ground on the bank 
of the river. His men were carelessly resting 
on their laurels, although their Chief had com- 
manded a vigilant watch from the top of a hill. 
Thus situated, he was surprised about a week 



254 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

after the victory by four companies of Connect- 
icut volunteers. The panic of Canonchet's 
men was complete. Their Chief attempted to 
escape by running along the bank of the river, 
and, as he attempted to cross, his foot slipped, 
plunging his gun under water. His pursuers 
were close upon him, and he surrendered with 
dignity. The first Englishman who came up 
was a young man, who commenced with famil- 
iarity to question the Sachem. A look of dis- 
dain was the only answer given for some time. 
The young man persisting, Canonchet replied 
in broken English : " You much child ! No 
understand matters of war ! Let your Chief 
come ; him I will answer ! " 

Joy spread through New England at the cap- 
ture of Canonchet, for, next to Philip, he was 
the most feared by the colonists of all their 
Indian foes. He was offered his life if he would 
obtain the submission of his people, but he 
scorned the bribe. In the early days of the 
war, before the Narragansetts had gone over to 
Philip's side, he was requested by the English 
to deliver over to them such of Philip's men as 
fell into his hands. His reply was : " I will not 
deliver up a Wampanoag, nor a paring of a 



Foot-prints of Kogcr Williams. 255 

Wampanoag's nail ! " When reminded of this 
in his captivity, he replied: "Others were as 
forward for the war as myself, and I desire to 
hear no more about it." 

He was carried to Stonington, and soon after 
shot. When told he must die, he replied calm- 
ly : "I like it well. I shall die before my heart 
is soft, or I have said any thing unworthy of 
myself" 

The desolating sweep of the war reached 
Providence. It was attacked three days after 
the victory of Canonchet, of which we have just 
spoken. As that took place only about seven 
miles from Providence, the attack was, perhaps, 
by a raid of his men. Twenty-nine houses 
were burned, among which was that of the 
Town-clerk. To save his records he threw 
them into a mill-pond, from which they were 
recovered in a damaged state. 

Most of the inhabitants had removed to New- 
port when the raid was made, among whom was 
Williams' family. But he himself remained, 
and, seeing the Indians coming, he took his 
staff and met them on a hill which overlooked 
the town. He declared to the leaders the use- 
lessness of the war on their part. " You may 



256 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

kill," he said, " the thousands the colonists can 
send against you, and the King of England 
will supply their places as fast as they fall." 

" Well," said the Chief, " let them come. We 
are ready for them. But as for you. Brother 
Williams, you are a good man. You have been 
kind to us many years. Not a hair of your 
head shall be touched." 

Philip's death closed the war. The death of 
his right hand, the brave Canonchet, and-defeat 
every-where, drove him to his familiar haunts 
about the home of his boyhood. His wife and 
only son, nine years old, were captives among 
his enemies. His people had been conquered, 
and, true to the spirit in which he commenced 
the war, he declared that he did not wish to 
survive his nation. He disdained to sue for 
peace. One of his followers advising it, he 
slew him. A brother of this man, whose name 
was Alderman, in revenge for his death desert- 
ed Philip, and led the English captain to his 
hiding-place in a swamp. Philip was taken by 
surprise, and, in attempting to escape, was shot 
through the heart by Alderman, and " fell upon 
his face in the mud and water, with his gun un- 
der him." 



Foot-pi'ints of Roger Williams. 257 

** Even that he lived is for his conqueror's tongue ; 
By foes alone his death song must be sung ; 
No chronicles but theirs shall tell 

His mournful doom to future times ; 
May these upon his virtues dwell, 

And in his fate forget his crimes." — Sprague. 



With the fall of Philip the power of the In- 
dians in New England was forever paralyzed. 
But the victory cost the colonists a great price. 
The expenditure of blood and treasure was im- 
mense for their means, and their songs of tri- 
umph were mingled with bitter lamentations, 
for bereavement had come to nearly every 
house. 

The close of this Indian war connects with 
Roger Williams in his appointment on a com- 
mittee to dispose of certain Indian captives. 
The town had voted to apprentice them for a 
term of years, and this committee was to carry 
out the provisions of the law for that purpose. 
The longest term of service required in any 
case was that of children five years old and 
younger, who were to be free at thirty. The 
number of years' service lessened as the age 
increased, and all who were adults at the com- 
mencement of their servitude were to go out 
free in seven years. 



258 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE SUNSET OF LIFE. 

^"T JE have seen that Williams bore far into 
^ ^ the evening of life his part, and more 
than his part, of the burdens of State affairs. 
It would be pleasant could we record that his 
last days had been blest by a truce in religious 
controversies. But besides the Quaker contro- 
versy, sparks from the ashes of earlier fires of 
this kind were stirred up and blown in his face. 
It will be gratifying, however, to note the contin- 
uance of the Christian patience and the spirit 
of forgiveness which adorned his earlier years, 
causing him to rise superior to all provocations. 
This will be seen in the following sentences, 
taken from an answer, in 1779, to a letter by a 
neighbor about taxes, in which railing accusa- 
tions had been made. " I thank you that you 
have so far regarded my lines as to return me 
your thoughts ; whether sweet or sour, I do not 
desire to mind. I humbly hope that as you 
shall not find me self-conceited nor self-seeking, 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 259 

so, as to others, not a busy-body, as you insinu- 
ate. My study is to be swift to hear, and slow to 
speak." This was the soft answer which turns 
away wrath. He was yet true to the spirit 
which extorted, many years before, this compli- 
ment from Governor Winthrop, of Massachu- 
setts : " Sir, we have often tried your patience, 
but could never conquer it." 

A severer test of the excellent graces of 
which we have spoken was inflicted upon him 
in a letter* written in 1671 by the Rev. John 
Cotton, of Plymouth. Mr. Cotton was a son 
of the eminent John Cotton, with whom Mr. 
Williams had the controversy on the Bloody 
Tenets. The father had in a Christian spirit 
confined his denunciations to what he consid- 
ered Mr. Williams' errors. The son looks over 
the pages of the books which contained the 
records of Williams' part of the contest, and 
revives the war by shooting his arrows at Will- 
iams' personal character, imputing to him, if he 
is rightly quoted, " the odious crimes of blas- 
phemies, reproaches, slanders, and idolatries," 
telling him he was " in the devil's kingdom, a 
graceless man, etc." Williams says, '* All this 

* Proceedings of Mass. Hist. Soc, 1855-57. Pp. 313-316. 



26o Foot-p7ints of Roger Williams. 

without any Scripture, reason, or argument, 
which might enUghten my conscience as to my 
error or offense to God or your dear father ;" 
and he adds, " I have now much above fifty 
years humbly and earnestly begged of God to 
make me as vile as a dead dog in my own eyes, 
so that I might not fear what men shall falsely 
say or cruelly do against me; and I have had 
long experience of his merciful answer to me 
in men's false charges and cruelties against me 
to this very hour." He further replies : " My 
great offense, as you so often repeat, is my 
wrong to your dear father — your glorified father. 
But the truth is, the love and honor which I 
have always shown, in speech and writing, to 
that excellently learned and holy man, your fa- 
ther, have been so great that I have been cen- 
sured by divers for it. God knows that for 
God's sake I tenderly loved and honored his 
person — as I did the persons of the magistrates, 
ministers, and members whom I knew in Old 
England, and knew their upright aims and great 
self-denials to enjoy more of God in this wilder- 
ness ; and I have therefore desired to waive all 
personal faihngs, and rather mention their beau- 
ties, to prevent the insultings of the Papists or 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 261 

profane Protestants who used to scoff at the 
weaknesses, yea, and at the divisions, of those 
they used to brand for Puritans. The holy eye 
of God hath seen this the cause why I have 
not said nor writ what abundantly I could have 
done, but have rather chose to bear all cen- 
sures, losses, and hardships." 

Concerning the book of which Mr. Cotton 
complains, he asks : '* What is there in this 
book but presses holiness of heart, holiness of 
life, holiness of worship, and pity to poor sinners, 
and patience toward them while they break not 
the civil peace } " And he adds in an earnest 
tone : " Sir, as before and formerly, I declare 
that if yourself, or any in public and private, 
show me any failing against God or your father 
in that book, you shall find me diligent and 
faithful in weighing, and in confessing or reply- 
ing, in love and meekness." 

While thus repelling attacks upon his charac- 
ter, his pen never faltered in seeking to secure 
redress for the wronged, or alleviation for the 
suffering. 

Richard Smith was a friend of Williams' early 
manhood, who "for conscience' sake," after va- 
rious perils among brethren, had settled in the 



262 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

Narragansett country. Here, " at great charge 
and hazard," he put up " in the thickest of the 
barbarians " the first Enghsh house ; forty years 
after this, in this same house, "with much se- 
renity of soul and comfort, he yielded up his 
spirit to God, the Father of spirits, in peace." 
His son Richard was living on and enjoying 
this paternal estate when King Philip's War 
broke out. At the command of General Wins- 
low, Smith then gave " himself in person, his 
housing, goods, corn, provisions, and cattle for 
a garrison and supply for the whole army of 
New England." It seems that Smith was now 
impoverished and neglected. Thus situated he 
found in the pen (though held by fingers eighty 
years old) of his father's friend an eloquent 
pleader. The letter has the old ring, and shows 
that though the writer's hands might tremble, 
his heart was young. 

We have stated in another place that, though 
Williams could see no truly apostolic Church 
and ministry, and so left the Church as now 
constituted, he continued to preach and to labor 
for the conversion of men. In 1782, when 
eighty-three years of age, he indulged a desire 
to publish the discourses he had delivered, as 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 263 

he says, " to the scattered Enghsh at Narragan- 
sett before the war and since." He recalled 
and arranged them at his fireside. He says of 
himself while making an effort to carry out this 
purpose, *'I am old, and weak, and bruised." 
He was, besides, poor. His wealth, as we have 
seen, and his golden chances to become rich, 
had been sacrificed to the public good. We 
learn from a letter of one of his sons, written 
after his father's death, that he was dependent, 
in part at least, upon his children. To carry 
out, then, his benevolent purpose with regard to 
his discourses, he was compelled to write to 
his friends in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and 
Plymouth, as well as those of his own colony. 
He assures them that there is in the sermons 
no controversy, " only an endeavor of a particu- 
lar match of each poor sinner to his Maker." 
He says, in his letter to Governor Bradstreet, 
of Massachusetts, that " those who have a shil- 
ling, and a heart to countenance such a soul 
work, may trust the Great Paymaster for a hun- 
dred to one in this life." 

Thus was the ruling passion of Roger Will- 
iams' life — a desire to do good — strong when 

the weary wheels of nature were about to stand 
17 



264 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

still. By the preceding sketches we are per- 
mitted to glance at the venerable man of eighty- 
four years. He sits by the fireside of his hum- 
ble home, surrounded by his kind children, and 
the affectionate wife of his youth. That his 
domestic relations were happy, the reader may 
be assured by recalling the tender expressions 
of his letters from England respecting his wife. 
It appears also in the letter he wrote to her in 
the wilderness, called " Experiments of Spiritual 
Life," etc., in which occurs this passage. It is 
strongly figurative, of course, his " posey " being 
the cluster of truths he sends concerning the 
improvement of his family's religious life : " I 
send thee, though in winter, an handful of flow- 
ers made up in a little posey for thy dear self 
and our dear children to look and smell on, 
when I, as the grass of the field, shall be gone 
and withered." 

Roger WilUams died early in the year 1683, 
in the eighty-fourth year of his age. The col- 
ony which he had founded bestowed upon his 
funeral service all the honors and solemnities 
of its small resources, and no doubt devout 
men carried him to his burial, and made great 
lamentation over him. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 265 

Through the smoke of the controversial bat- 
tles in which Roger Williams was engaged 
through all of his eventful life, his faults have 
been magnified and his virtues disparaged. But 
as the peace-bringing light of a better age falls 
upon this smoke and dissipates it, his faults are 
seen — though sharply defined — to he upon the 
surface of his character, and divine grace, in- 
grafted upon a generously impulsive heart and 
a gifted intellect, to be the solid foundation of 
it. Though there never have been wanting 
those who saw and published his faults, every 
generation has borne men of historic note who 
have declared their convictions in glowing 
language, of the world's great indebtedness to 
Roger Williams for his clear conception, forci- 
ble statement, and consistent maintenance of 
the true principles of religious freedom ; and 
no age has contained so many such testi- 
monies as our own. But the civil institu- 
tions of nearly an entire continent have 
their secure foundation upon Roger Will- 
iams' principles of " soul liberty." The peo- 
ple of the Old World are reconstructing 
theirs upon the same firm basis. These pro- 
claim his fame with more than a trumpet 



266 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

tongue. They increase and perpetuate it 
more than golden statues or marble monu- 
ments could do. 

We invite the reader to a sight of the me- 
mentoes of his history. 





Intended Monument to Roger Williams at Providence. 



a 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 269 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

MEMENTOES. 

\ T /"E trust that the acquaintance that these 
^ ^ pages have given the readers with 
Roger Williams will make them interested in 
whatever mementoes we may be able to exhibit. 
We make no extra charge for a walk through 
our museum, though it has cost us some pains- 
taking. If you, reader, do not like our curi- 
osities, you can pass rapidly on ; if you are 
interested, you can pause and do your own 
moralizing. 

We have been at Salem, Mass., often enough 
during our story to know what connection it 
has with it. We shall enter it in the railroad 
cars, and not, as we suppose Roger Williams 
didj on horseback. Walking out of the front 
of the depot, and taking the sidewalk on the 
right hand of the railroad track, and going a 
few rods until we reach the corner of Washing- 
ton and Essex streets, we stand directly in front 
of a brick church. Its marble tablets tell us 



2/0 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

that it is the First Church, on the site of the 
first house of worship built in the Massachusetts 
colony. The society, gathered in 1629, have 
worshiped on this spot ever since. Here Will- 
iams preached. The parsonage was near the 
church, on a spot covered now by the Merchants' 
Reading Room. 

But by passing along we may stand within 
the frame, and look upon the oaken timbers of 
the very church in which he preached. Turn- 
ing to the right into Essex-street, and walking 
a few moments, we reach Plummer Hall, on the 
left hand. Stepping in and getting a queer 
looking key, one of the fathers of its kind, which 
will be kindly loaned us, and going into the 
rear of the building, we unlock the door and 
enter The Old Roger Williams Church. The 
reader will recollect our account of the build- 
ing and dedication of this house, contained in 
the fifth chapter. There are evidences now of 
the peculiar plaster and mortar which originally 
covered the walls and beams. We may imagine 
the rough, uncushioned seats on which the wor- 
shipers sat. What a contrast to Hugh Peters, 
Williams' immediate successor, this house must 
have been to that of St. Sepulchre's in London, 



\ 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 271 

with its weeping thousands, and many hundreds 
who had just passed, under his ministry, from 
death to Hfe ! 

The room is now stored with many mementoes 
of the past. The first communion table will 
connect us with Williams at moments of the 
most sacred character. Chairs of the an- 
tique pattern carry us back to the home 
circle gathered about the blazing fire of the 
huge old fire-places. The spinning-wheel speaks 
of the music Williams heard in his pastoral calls. 
The old portraits which look down upon us from 
the walls are those of some of the early fathers. 

This house, besides being honored with the 
presence as worshipers, either stated or occa- 
sional, of nearly all the historic persons of the 
colonial period, was the place where the colonial 
government held some of its early meetings ; 
they used it too for a watch-house. 

After being doubled in size, and, as years 
passed on, abandoned as a church, and the old 
and new parts separated, this, the original old 
church, was used for a school-house, and later 
for more menial purposes. Finally, its identity 
being well established, the Salem Athenaeum 
removed it to this place. 



2/2 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

Leaving the old church, with its impressive 
associations, and returning along Essex-street, 
across Washington-street, to the corner of Es- 
sex and North streets, we stand before the 
Roger Williams House. We give a picture of 
it as it is now. Its history has been carefully 
and thoroughly examined by W. P. Upham, 
Esq., and its identity seems to be fully ascer- 
tained.* It has long been known as the Witch 
House, but its connection with any witchcraft 
proceedings has never been prov^ed, unless the 
mere fact that it was owned and occupied by 
one of the judges of the alleged witches in the 
great witchcraft furor of 1692 constitutes such 
connection. It has undergone important 
changes since 1636, when Roger Williams left 
his home and family and plunged into the wil- 
derness. That end seen at the end of the pict- 
ure which has a projecting upper story remains 
essentially as in Williams' day. The bricks 
covered with clay, with which its sides were 
originally filled, still remain, giving evidence 
that there was then no plastering nor ceiling. 
Two stout hewn timbers of sound oak cross the 
rooms of this end. The house, as built by 

* See Essex Bulletin for April, 1S70. 




Roger Williams' House. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williarns. 275 

Williams, must have been one of the most capa- 
cious and desirable, both as to structure and 
location, of any of its times. He speaks in one 
of his letters of selling his house in Salem to 
pay the expense of the impoverishing conse- 
quences of his banishment. From Salem to 
Providence is a small affair in the way of a 
journey, taken in these days of steam and rail- 
roads. We have seen that it meant something 
to Roger Williams, taken afoot, in a stormy 
winter, through a pathless forest. If the reader 
please, we will start from the very room, the 
one we have just examined, that Williams 
started from, and visit the spot on which he 
finally settled, and where his dust is entombed. 
We need not avoid Boston, as he did, but 
shall find it very convenient and pleasant to 
take it in our way. We know of no foot-prints 
there of Williams. But the Boston libraries 
have carefully gathered all the important records, 
and even the little scraps of information, from 
recently discovered manuscripts, which throw 
light upon his life. These have an honored 
place with like records of the great and good 
men who saw not eye to eye with him on earth, 
as they do now in the clearer light of heaven. 



2^6 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

From Boston, the head-waters of the Narra- 
gansett Bay are reached after a pleasant ride 
of only little more than an hour. There are 
some forests through which the train shoots, 
and we tried to people them with Indians — 
with the genuine savage who so disturbed the 
quiet of our fathers, and who so severely 
taxed, but never exhausted, the peace-making 
resources of Roger Williams. But there was 
not half a chance for such a dream. Scarcely 
had we brought before our mind's eye a sage- 
looking Canonicus, or a stalwart Miantonomo, 
when the engine screamed its obtrusive alarm, 
or the conductor shouted the name of some 
town or village. On reaching the Providence 
depot, the first person who attracted our atten- 
tion was as pure a specimen of the natives of the 
American forest as these degenerate times can 
produce. She was sitting behind a bench cov- 
ered with trinkets. A genuine Narragansett ! 
we exclaimed mentally ; perhaps a kindred of 
some devoted friend of Roger Williams. But 
on inquiry she proved to be a fresh importation 
from Canada ! We turned away in disgust, and 
began our inquiries, with better success, as the 
reader will see, for a relative of Williams himself 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 277 

Provided with a letter of introduction to the 
courteous Register of Brown University, the 
Rev. WilHam Douglas, we were introduced by 
him to the librarian, Mr. R. A. Guild. This 
last-named gentleman has given special atten- 
tion to the history of Roger Williams, and is 
editing, in connection with other literary men, 
the republication, by the Narragansett Club, of 
all his works. We found in him a cordial and 
well-qualified adviser in the prosecution of our 
inquiries after historic localities. Through a 
courteous note from him we were soon enjoying 
the privilege of an interview with Stephen Ran- 
dall, Esq., a descendant of Roger Williams, 
whose attention, for many years, has been 
directed to securing from his fellow-citizens 
becoming respect to the memory of Roger 
Williams in the form of a monument. An 
exceedingly pleasant and instructive conversa- 
tion on the subject occupied our attention, the 
gift of several valuable documents in reference 
to Williams which we had not before seen, and 
an engagement to accompany us the next day 
to the Williams localities, were some of the 
gratifying results of our visit. 

Punctual to his engagement, Mr. Randall 



278 Foot-pjdnts of Roger Williams. 

met us the next morning. From a point near 
the Providence and Boston depot we walked 
along Canal-street, and arrived in a few mo- 
ments at a pump, on the left hand, near the 
tide-water. " You may see," remarked Mr. 
Randall pleasantly, while pumping, " how you 
like water from the Roger Williams spring." 
It affords a refreshing supply of pure water in 
one of the city thoroughfares of travel. The 
spring with which this well is connected by a 
pipe is situated a few rods from it up the west- 
ern side of Prospect Hill. We walked through 
a narrow public way to the rear of number 242, 
west side of North Main-street. For many 
years, until the summer of 1870, the spring was 
in the back-yard of this brick dwelling-house. 
The city then, to widen the street, moved the 
house back, so that the spring is now some- 
where near the middle of the cellar. Roger 
Williams, when paddling his canoe in search of 
a resting-place, shot out of the mouth of the 
Seekonk river into what is now the harbor, 
rounded Fox Point and ascended " Providence 
river," (a narrow upper arm of the Narragan- 
sett Bay,) and sailed along its eastern shore, no 
doubt then well covered with forests, until he 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 279 

espied this spring gushing out from the side of 
the hill. Here he ended his voyage, and built 
his cabin. A road was laid out above the spring 
along the whole western declivity of the hill, 
called King-street, now North Main-street. 
Six-acre lots were set off on the eastern side 
of this road, and, of course, extending up the 
hill ; being narrow, they in fact extended to its 
top. We then crossed the present street from 
the spring, and, passing up a lane which opened 
into the rear of number 233, we stood over the 
cellar of the Roger Williams house. It stood, 
as did other early houses, eighty feet from the 
street. Mr. Randall had often played about it 
in his boyhood, when Mr. Williams' foot-prints 
were still there, and the spring below bubbled 
up into a cask set in the ground for public con- 
venience. The location commands a wide and 
varied view. To Williams it was an impressive 
view of forest-covered hills, green meadows, and 
a quiet sheet of water. Now we look down 
from it upon a busy, populous city. 

Still further up the. hill, among the trees of 
his orchard, was the family burial-ground. We 
reached it by crossing what is now Benefit- 
street, passing into the rear of number 109, 



28o Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

the house of Sullivan Dorr, Esq., through the 
yard, and, by permission, into the stable, up 
into its hay-loft, and out of a rear door to the 
sharply-ascending hill. The grave of Roger 
Williams is a few feet from the door. It is cov- 
ered by a finished cap of a heavy stone pillar. 
The cap was, we suppose, rejected for some 
reason by the builders, and was taken and 
placed here as an imperishable index of the 
place where for nearly two hundred years slept 
the dust of the apostle of religious liberty. 

Mr. Randall remarked that he had been told 
by the aged people of his boyhood that this 
was the Roger Williams grave. The tradition 
concerning it is clear and satisfactory. It once 
had a head-stone, but traces of it had disap- 
peared, and the place had fallen into general neg- 
lect until March, i860. At that time, under the 
promptings of Mr. Randall, competent and re- 
sponsible persons opened the grave. The dust — 
for that was all that remained of the mortal body 
of Roger Williams — was carefully and reverent- 
ly gathered and deposited in an urn, and the urn 
placed in Mr. Randall's family tomb until fur- 
ther disposition may be made of it. The grave 
of Mrs. Williams was also examined, and a lock 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 281 

of braided hair was all that indicated where 
she lay. 

A singular incident was discovered on uncov- 
ering the bottom of Mr. Williams' grave. The 
root of an apple-tree had turned out of its way 
to enter it at the head. Following the position 
of the body to the thighs, it divided and followed 
each leg to the feet, tender fibers shooting out 
in various directions. By nature's promptings 
it had sought and taken up the chemical de- 
posits of the body, and turned them into blossoms 
and fruit. So do the virtues of the good bear fruit 
after their memory among men has perished. 

Before parting, Mr. Randall introduced us to 
the holder of a watch owned and carried by 
Roger Williams. Its style is of course exceed- 
ingly antique. It is a silver Dutch bull's eye, 
made in Rotterdam, with an enchasing on its 
open silver face of Hector taking leave of his 
family. It was plainly a first-class article in its 
day, and is even now a good time-keeper, giving 
good assurance of running well another two 
hundred years. It has a curious device by 
which the day of the month is indicated upon 
its face. The machinery by which this is done 
is wound up by the turns of the key which 



282 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 

winds its other parts. The date, 1653, is barely 
discernible. Williams was at this period the 
guest of Sir Henry Vane, or at least frequently 
at his mansion, and his intimate friend. He 
was at the same time, the reader will recollect, 
in friendly relations with Milton, Cromwell, and 
Hugh Peters. It may have been to Williams the 
treasured memento of one of these historic men. 

Mr. Randall carries in his pocket a memento 
scarcely less valuable than the watch. It is a 
pocket-compass owned by Williams. Besides 
its needle and points, it has a sun-dial so ad- 
justed that it can be made to throw its shadow 
upon the hours cut into the brass rim inside of 
the case. The whole is very portable and 
artistically finished. We naturally associated 
it with his "steering" through the woods from 
Salem to the Narragansett country. 

The root which so curiously marked in the 
grave of Williams the outlines of his bones 
was the next object of our examination and 
study. It seemed to us nature's reverent effort 
to perpetuate the memory of the good ^an's 
earthly resting place. 

From viewing these localities and curious 
things we turned toward Whatcheer, or Slate 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 283 

Rock, the spot on the Seekonk river where 
WilHams landed after being hailed in a friendly- 
manner by the Indians. We present a good 
fancy sketch of the scene. It is a copy of the 
device upon the official seal of the city of Prov- 
idence. The locality may be found by following 
South Main-street to Power-street, and then 
going east to the river. Slate Rock is a small 
affair now, time and curious fingers having car- 
ried a large portion of it away. The bank 
rises abruptly here from the river ; the land in 
the immediate vicinity, which has hitherto been 
unoccupied, affords good house lots, and is being 
rapidly covered. The Rock and this land 
bear much the same relation to each other 
as the Forefather's Rock at Plymouth bears 
to Cole's Hill on the adjacent bank which is 
graded and kept as a public park, and so ought 
the other to be ; it would afford a pleasant 
resort from the more crowded portions of the 
city, and its moral influence, connecting, as it 
must, with the memory of the Founder of the 
State, would be excellent. 

It only remains for us to notice recent efforts 
to erect a suitable monument to the memory of 

Williams. Many attempts have been made 
18 



284 Foot-prints of Roger Williams. , 

from time to time, and failed. The State not 
long since atoned in some degree for these 
failures by appropriating twenty thousand dol- 
lars for a statue of Williams, to be placed in 
the Capitol at Washington. It has been exe- 
cuted by a young artist of great promise, Frank- 
lin Simmons, of Providence, and, at the time of 
our writing, awaits the ceremony of its erection 
to a place by the side of the historic men of the 
nation. We present the reader with a picture 
of it from a photograph by Coleman & Rem- 
ington, Providence.* 

The monumental enterprise took definite 
form in i860 by the promptings of our friend, 
Stephen Randall. An association was formed 
under an act of incorporation, with the vener- 
able Francis Wayland as its president. The 
breaking out of the Rebellion, and disagreement 
concerning the plans for the proposed monu- 
ment, caused a pause in its operations until 
1867. Mr. Randall again came to the rescue, 
and put its operations on such a footing that 
ultimate success is certain. His generous gift 
to its fund gave them spirit and form. A plan 
of a monument has been definitely determined. 

* See Frontispiece. 



Foot-prints of Roger Williams. 285 

A picture of it is presented to our readers. It 
is to be not less than one hundred and seventy- 
feet high. The material of the outer wall is to 
be granite. Provision is made in the plan for 
statues and historical inscriptions. The site is 
also determined. It is to be between Halsey 
and Angell streets, and within three hundred 
feet of Prospect-street. This will place it on 
the top of Prospect Hill, and on the upper part 
of Roger Williams' "plantation," or six-acre 
lot. It is to cost not less than ^75,000. The 
site is two hundred feet above tide-water, so 
that the range of view must be grand and varied. 
During the Revolution a beacon fire elevated 
upon a mast from the top of Prospect Hill was 
seen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New 
London, Connecticut. The monument of Roger 
Williams will yet greet that of Bunker Hill, 
and the same setting sun will " linger and play 
upon the summit" of both. 




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LIFE OF THE APOSTLE JOHN. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith, ISmo. 

HISTORY OF THE PATRIARCH JACOB. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. Five Illustrations. 18mo. 

THE LIFE OF HEZEKIAH. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. 18mo. 

THE LIFE OF JOSHUA. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. Three Illustrations. ISmo. 

DEAF AND DUMB. 

Recollections of the Deaf and Dumb. 15mo- 

THE LIFE OF ELIJAH. 

By Rev. Daniel Smith. Five Illustrationa- ISmo. 

THE WATERLOO SOLDIER. 

Three Illustrations. ISmo. 

SUPERSTITIONS OF BENGAL; 

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STORY OF ANNA THE PROPHETESS. 

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ETORY OF ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA. 

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THE JEW AMONG ALL NATIONS. 

Eight Illustrations. ISmo. 

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 

Among Children ; or, Twenty-five Narratives of a Religioui 
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MOUNTAINS OF THE PENTATEUCH. 

Conversations on the Mountains of the PentCoteuch, and the 
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LIFE OF JOHN BUNYAN, 

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THE TWO DOVES: 

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THE MOTHERLESS FAMILY. 

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THOMAS HAWKEY TREFFRY: 

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UNCLE WILLIAM AND HIS NEPHEWa 

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MY GRANDFATHER GREGORY. 

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THE FLOWER AND FRUIT.' 

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THE SEED AND GRASS. 

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LIFE OP REV. RICHARD WATSON, 

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SERIOUS ADVICE 

From a Father to his Children. Recommended to Parents^ 
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A VOICE FROM THE SABBATH SCHOOL: 

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LITTLE JAMES; 

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MEMOIR OF ELIZABETH JONES, 

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JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE. 

Rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple ; or, The Lives of 
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THE TRAVELER; 

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MEMOIRS OF JOHN FREDERIC OBERLIN, 

Pastor of Waldbach, in the Ban De La Roche. 18mo. 

TIIE LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 

First President of the United States. By S. G. Arnold, Authol 
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THE LIFE OF DANIEL. 

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THE LIFE OF MOSES, 

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